


Circuit of Consciousness

by queenofpendragons



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Crime, Criminal Minds Fanfiction, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2019-08-26 09:27:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 27,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16678963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofpendragons/pseuds/queenofpendragons
Summary: When Rosemary Lennox escapes her kidnapper, she finds herself playing a crucial role in the BAU's ongoing investigation of a clever serial killer who sets up the bodies of his victims in re-enactment of famous mythological tales. An undeniable connection soon forms between Rosemary and Dr. Spencer Reid, but as the team begins closing in on their unsub, doubts begin to rise about their one surviving victim. Who can anyone trust?





	1. Breathing

Her head was pounding, her eyelids too heavy. Rosemary parted her lips and felt the stinging sensation of dry cracking. She hastily licked her lips to stop the burn, but could feel with her tongue that there was some dried substance on the side of her mouth. 

Where was she?

Millimeter by millimeter she forced her eyelids up, anxious to view her surroundings. Wanting to know what was on her mouth, she began to reach up. A frail, cracked scream shot out of her mouth as a pain she could not put into words shot up her arm. She had never felt anything like it before and her anxiety suddenly increased.

**Where was she?**

Rosemary kept her arm absolutely still so as not to bring the pain back, but was somewhat relieved to realize she was not tied up or chained to anything. She lifted up the other hand with more care, relieved to find it was okay. Trembling, wet fingers reached her mouth. She rubbed the dried substance lightly, wincing as her lips burned again. As she lowered her hand, her eyes fixated on her fingers. Dried blood. 

As tentative brown eyes looked around, Rosemary found that the room was damp and dim, and seemed to be some kind of spacious warehouse backroom rather than a tiny, cramped space where kidnappers usually threw their victims. She'd been kidnapped, hadn't she? The lights flickered and Rosemary glanced up, frightened. As far as she could tell, she was alone. There was only one door, a large metal lifting door directly across from her a few feet away.  **  
**

 _What was the last thing she had been doing?_ Her memory swiftly provided her with an answer, reminding her of the library shelves and three heavy books weighing down her satchel as she walked outside. The alleyway was her shortcut, but someone else seemed to know that. She was hardly halfway down the road when a cold pinch stung her neck. She was smart enough to realize she had been injected with something to render her unconscious. **  
**

Rosemary blinked hastily, scared to remember. But she needed to- it was in every book and tv show, if she could get out of here the only way any law enforcement could help her was if she could remember the crucial details. So she forced her brain to focus on how she'd gotten here. It was hard; whatever she'd been injected with had interfered with her consciousness. But there were spurts of visual activity after the attack that gave her vague answers. She was being carried, the weight of her bag suddenly gone. The next time her eyes opened, she was staring at the ceiling of a van, drowsy and seeing double. She turned her head; he was there with a mask over his face and a button up shirt, leaving her in the back of his van.

It felt impossible, but Rosemary mustered up what little strength she had left and threw her weight at him. They wrestled, and she scratched at his shirt with all her might. With a few tugs the buttons popped and the shirt opened- she was momentarily caught off guard by the tattoo, stark against his pale skin. Suddenly an acute pressure twisted her arm and it gave a sickening snap that made her scream– she went flying backwards.

It was all dark from there. Rosemary firmly imprinted the tattoo image in her mind, knowing it would be the one thing that just might get this guy behind bars if she could get out of here. But that was just the thing. No one would ever know what she'd seen if she couldn't get out of this damp prison. She forced herself to look for options- there was _always_ a way out. 

But that door taunted her. Until it opened, there were no apparent options. Were there cameras in here? She hadn't even thought to look. Her legs were shaky, but able to support her. She wandered the room, her arm crying out with every move. There, right by the door! This was her chance. She needed to do something impulsive, something that would force him to come in and _open that door_. It terrified her, and she put it off for a minute, knowing that what happened from there would be incalculable. He could come in and decide to shoot her dead, for all she knew. But she had to try– if not, there was no telling how much longer she'd be left in here with a locked door and no other escape route. 

"Hey!" she finally called into the camera weakly, putting on her best acting skills though her body was racked with shivers. "I- I don't feel good! Please, I need water!" 

This part would not be fun, but it was necessary. She turned away from the camera, adding, "I'm going to be sick!" Swallowing hard as Rosemary brought her shaking hand up, staring at her index finger, she convinced herself that it had to be done. Seconds later, she was empty-stomached and even more pale-faced than she already had been. She faced the camera again, this time looking far worse. "Please, bring me water!"

She forced herself to start crying, which wasn't all that hard considering the situation, and got on the floor, holding her knees to her chest. Rosemary was desperate for some sign he was there... and then it suddenly came. The metal door gave a shake before it began to rise, slowly at first before shooting up quickly. A figure approached as the light in the hallway flickered above him. 

Rosemary tried to disguise her horror at the mask that covered his face- _a golden bull_. This was a living nightmare- had she been kidnapped by some kind of cult? He approached and she shot up, frightened but determined in her plan. Through the slits for eyes she saw him staring at her. The eyes were a clichely icy blue. He held something out to her. She looked and saw a water bottle in his grip. She reached out with trembling hand to accept it, uncapping slowly and taking a drink. She brought the bottle away from her lips as he watched silently, her mind racing. Why didn't he talk? Was it purposeful, to scare her even more? To avoid her recognizing his voice, even?

In a blink, water was flying towards the mask as she tossed all of the water out of its bottle onto his face. He remained silent still but stumbled, impaired as the water went into the eye slits and blinded him. Rosemary ran for it, shooting past him and out of the doorway. Her arm was on fire as it banged around with every movement, and she was clenching her teeth so hard her jaw ached. She searched for a button, seeing green and slamming it down and just hoping it might slow him down. She ran left, her steps echoing down the corridor and the sound of the metal door sliding back down reaching her. _Don't look back. Everyone who looks back dies._

She had no idea where she was going, but it had to be somewhere. She heard footsteps a ways back and realized with a sinking feeling her hopes to deter him had been shattered. She hit a fork in the road, and darted left. Some kind of sewage room, full of pipes and machinery that were silent, seemingly inactive. She looked down. Rosemary was more overjoyed than she had ever been in her life to find a sewer grate that she knew would lead underground. Despite the searing pain in her arm, she used both limbs to tug up the lid and move it aside. She then slid into the hole, but it was too fast. She lost her grip on the thin handles leading down the hole and fell straight down, into the sewer tunnel. A cry had burst from her lips upon impact, her knees protesting against the shock they'd absorbed. She was soaked with dirty water and hurting all over, but none of that mattered. It was life or death, and she knew which one she wanted. _  
_

Rosemary hauled herself up and ran, splashes of water sounding as she followed the tunnel. One of the grates above would have to lead to some exit outside. That was what she told herself to keep herself going, anyway. She didn't hear any other splashing than her own steps- maybe she'd lost him. She couldn't bear to think of that awful golden mask. She ran for what seemed like an hour, not wanting to stop until she was sure she was far away from that eerie warehouse. With a sinking heart, she heard water disturbance behind her, somewhere– he was nearing.

She decided to stop and take a chance, climb up at the next available exit, because otherwise she just might end up trapped down here if he caught up to her. Rosemary stopped at the next opening above and reached up to heave herself into the ladder, climbing up like there was no tomorrow. Another lid blocked her, but she shoved up with a loud cry to try and move it. A crack of light appeared as it shifted, but the measly strength of her injured arm had not been enough to lift it entirely. She was hyperventilating now, tears leaking out of her eyes as she tried again, shoving and shifting. Scraping metallic sounds reached her as the lid began to finally rise, teetering, and then she gave one last shove to send it all the way off. Rosemary continued upward with a dramatic sound of relief, seeing sky right above. As she tried to pull herself out of the hole, she felt a scary hot pain in her leg that made her give a bloodcurdling scream. Something was _tearing_ into her skin. 

Rosemary glanced down in the space between her chest and the hole and saw that mask, right below her. A glistening silver flashed by her leg and and she knew he was the cause behind her injury. Rosemary was sobbing now and wishing she could give up, but she was determined not to be another dead body the police would find. She gave a few hard kicks until she heard metal contact. A loud splash came next and she knew he had fallen.

She only had moments now, and her body was shutting down by the second. She scrambled up onto concrete and found herself somewhere in a town, unfamiliar, but somewhere. She couldn't even muster the energy to shove the lid back over the hole and instead went running until she found a street with several small businesses around.

"Oh my god," a woman cried out from outside a cafe down the pavement. Rosemary looked around as a couple people began calling for help, rushing over and asking her all sorts of questions. Her body was thoroughly overwhelmed and she gave into gravity, her vision going black.


	2. Hospital Gown Blues

"Have her parents been contacted yet?" Morgan asked quietly as he stared with sympathetic dark eyes into the hospital room, concerned eyes fixated on the young woman who was currently unconscious in a bed inside. 

"They're on their way now, but they live all the way out in Norfolk," Hotch replied from beside the other agent, a frown etched into his features as he too watched her steady breathing. 

"Why did they call us?" Derek then asked, glancing at his chief. "What does her appearance have to do with the BAU, Hotch?"

Hotch tore his eyes away from the scene to glance at Morgan, his lips pressed together in a thin line. 

"She's our latest victim," he murmured, unblinking as he said it. "And she's the only one who survived." 

* * *

Rosemary awoke in a hospital room, alone. She wondered how long she'd been asleep, where her parents where, if the police would come in talk to her- her mind could not focus on just one thing. It wasn't unfamiliar to the intelligent young woman, however. Her whole life had been a series of pressing thought after even more pressing thought with an analytical mind such as hers. 

She peered past the end of her bed outside the room, catching the attention of a good-looking male and a tall and dark-haired, serious looking man. They exchanged a few words before the first man disappeared and then ended up coming right through her door.   
  
Rosemary looked away from the approaching stranger to asses her injuries. Her right wrist had a cast over it, confirming the source of the awful pain she had experienced trying to escape imprisonment. Her leg felt tight and slightly numb, and she felt the pressure of gauze and bandages wrapped around it. She imagined she looked quite pitiful, but hopefully the nurses had at least cleaned her up a little. She just wanted some dignity back after the horrible experience.

"Rosemary?" the man asked kindly, pulling a chair up beside her bed. "Do you prefer Rose or...?"

"Rosemary," she confirmed, assessing the stranger carefully. "My parents called me Ro for short but- I just prefer Rosemary." 

"Then that's what I'll call you," he smiled, clearly trying to make her feel at ease. It was only working a little. She wanted to trust him and loosen up, but her body was hurting and in her heart she was still frightened. The mask flashed behind her eyes again and she blinked. 

"I'm Special Agent Derek Morgan, I work for the BAU of-"

"The FBI," she finished, swallowing to rid the dryness in her throat. "Could you pass me that water?" 

"Oh- sure," Derek agreed, though a light frown had come over his features. He handed her the glass of water from the bedside, and she eagerly drank. 

"You know, most people wouldn't know that the BAU is a sect of the FBI right off the top of their head," Derek said in an almost complimentary fashion, watching her patiently. 

"I was always interested in criminology," she told him, an involuntary smile of bashfulness coming onto her lips. "Read up on both a lot back when I was in high school, took a few classes in undergrad."

"Smart girl," he noted, a friendlier smile appearing on his face. "All of that reading may have just been what saved your life. Now... I know you're probably still freaking out inside. I don't blame you. Being kidnapped and living to tell your story is no easy experience."

Rosemary swallowed with difficulty as he spoke. The last thing she wanted to do was relive that experience. But she reminded herself of the very thoughts that had kept her going when she thought she was going to die. This was her moment to do something good.

"On the way to the hospital the nurses said you were murmuring about a golden mask while in and out of consciousness," Derek began, his attention focused entirely on her. "Can you tell me what that means?"

Rosemary lowered her gaze, staring at the blue patterned hospital gown covering her chest. 

"He wore a golden mask," she explained quietly. "It- it was shaped like a bull." 

"A bull?" Derek repeated, dark brows rising in perplexment. 

"Yes," Rosemary confirmed, finally looking at him again. "What does this guy do anyway? What-" 

She shuddered and her wrist thumped painfully under her cast. 

"What would he have done to me?"

Derek shook his head, lips pressed together firmly. 

"You don't need to know any of that," he told her gently. "You're safe and that's all that matters."

"No offense, Agent Morgan," she said, voice shaky with each word. "But I deserve to know who I was dealing with. If I'm going to help you, I want to know what this- this creep is doing to other people."

She stared down the agent with all the strength she could muster, which wasn't much, but it was the thought that counted. Her face lacked any intimidation as well, which couldn't be helped, but she hoped he'd give in. Derek sighed and stared at his hands, clearly weighing the options, before he nodded. 

"The serial killer we're dealing with has- an  intense obsession with mythology," he explained as he looked back at the brunette. "Greek, to be exact. Our last victim was found positioned above a small pool of water, the eyes glued open and permanently fixated on his reflection-"

"Narcissus," Rosemary realized. Of course she knew the tale- she knew just about everything there was to know about Greek mythology, thanks to her father.

"And the victims before that were found in similarly mythologically inspired scenes," he finished. "So far we've had no luck stopping this guy. He's clever, always moving locations, and leaves the victims' bodies in a clean and perfectly arranged state. Obviously we've had no survivors to tell us what he looks like..." 

"Even I couldn't tell you that," Rosemary muttered, a deep feeling of regret in her chest for ripping the attacker's shirt open rather than pulling his mask off the day he took her. 

"But we know one more thing about him already based off what you just told me," Derek encouraged, placing a hand on her good arm with a soft smile. "So let's start from the beginning. Tell me everything you can remember."

Rosemary licked her lips before starting. She explained how she was taken, where she woke up, how she got away... everything and anything he might need to know. There was some black bits in between here and there, but she'd mostly been able to remember what had occurred. 

"And another thing," she frowned as her explanation came to a close. "He had a tattoo. On his chest. It looked like wings. Maybe it was a bird? I was half-conscious so- I'm sorry if I'm wrong. But I tried to keep it in my head to tell someone when I escaped." 

Derek shook his head. "I understand. Even if you're a little off, any detail can help us. Thank you for being brave, Rosemary. Your story alone could help us save more lives if we can find this guy and put him behind bars." 

Despite all of the anxiety and fear, those words alone made Rosemary feel as if she had done something right, good. 

"Rosemary!"

The young woman looked up as her parents burst into the room, panic in their eyes. Derek got up immediately to introduce himself. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Lennox, I'm Agent Derek Morgan, I work for the FBI," he detailed calmly. "Rosemary was just telling me her story."

While Mrs. Lennox gave him an appreciative, teary smile before rushing to her daughter's side, Mr. Lennox frowned lightly. 

"Forgive me for asking, but why is the FBI involved in this?" 

"Well, the particular kidnapper who took Rosemary matches the description of an unsub in our ongoing investigation on a series of murders around Virginia," the agent explained solemnly. "Your daughter is the only person to have successful escaped him and her story is crucial to our investigation. Anything that can give us a lead is important, and we are incredibly grateful for everything she was able to tell us."

Mr. Lennox nodded, his frown softening and the tiredness in his features returning. 

"Rosemary has always been a smart girl," he told Agent Morgan, glancing over the agent's shoulder at his wife and daughter. "I have never been more grateful for that in all her years of life. The incredible mind of hers is what saved her." 

He seemed to tear up at his own words and Derek bowed his head, clearly not wanting to cause any discomfort. 

"It's not often that this happens, but it's always a blessing when it does," Derek confirmed. "Now, because we need to get a hold of every lead we can, do you and your wife mind coming in for questioning tomorrow?"

"Questioning?" Mrs. Lennox suddenly asked, her attention now on the two men. She seemed a little unsure, and Derek quickly glanced between her and her husband. 

"It's just standard procedure, ma'am," he assured. "Nothing to worry about. We just want to get this guy off the streets for good." 

"We'll do everything we can to help," Mr. Lennox broke in, looking pointedly at his wife. Derek tried not to display any awkwardness around the conversation, putting his hands together.

"All right then, we will contact you to let you know where and when," he confirmed. He looked back at Rosemary, offering another smile. 

"Get better, smart girl." 

He nodded at the parents before exiting the room. 

"Mom didn't seem too happy to be asked to come in for questioning," Morgan reported to Hotch as he walked over to him in the hospital corridor. 

"Do we know anything about the parents yet?" Hotch asked as they walked back to the elevators. 

"Garcia is pulling up info for us back at HQ." 

The elevator doors slid open moments later and the two men stepped inside, the doors quickly sliding shut behind them.


	3. Take a Look, It's in a Book

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I should clarify that Rosemary's FC is Alicia Sanz! Hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far, forgive me for my writing being a bit subpar last chapter.

Rosemary had grown increasingly bored during her time in the hospital. And it didn't help one bit that her parents had been forced to leave her in order to be questioned at FBI headquarters in Quantico. She wasn't allowed to leave her stiff hospital bed by orders of the nurse that came in to check on her- and it would probably be difficult anyway considering she hadn't tried walking on her injured leg yet, and even moving it in bed proved to be difficult as the muscles were tight and her wound could become inflamed by the slightest mistake. 

If only she had a book to read. Her parents were gone so she could not ask them to run out and grab her one from a bookstore- even a crappy paperback thriller from a local Walgreens would suffice. There was _one_  other option, however, she realized. The two BAU agents she'd met had decided to leave one agent with her for safety, because they could not guarantee that her attacker would not come back for her. After all, they said, many times an unsub would be so fixated on victims of their choosing that even if they lost them, they would not stop until they accomplished what they had failed the first time. 

She had been introduced to the agent briefly before he took a seat across from her bed in the hospital room. 

_"Hi, I'm Special Agent Spencer Reid, also from the BAU," the young man had informed Rosemary in a bright voice, offering a smile._

_"Agent Reid will be keeping watch over you until your parents get back, and even then, we would like to keep an eye on you until we know for sure we have our unsub," Agent Hotchner explained, pressing his lips together and giving her a curt nod._

_"Thank you," Rosemary said with a small, though slightly dubious smile. He sure wasn't as brawny or tough-looking as Agent Morgan, but maybe she was underestimating some secret skills he had. Besides, she reminded herself, all agents have to be able to defend themselves physically and learn how to properly use a weapon._

_"We'll be back soon, Ro," her father had murmured, leaning down to kiss his daughter on the forehead. "I love you."_

_"Love you, too," she'd sighed as he backed away, letting her mother break in to also say goodbye.  
_

And now here she was, staring at this agent from her bed, formulating a plan in that active brain of hers. He himself was reading a book she had briefly noticed the cover of. 

"Are you interested in becoming a doctor or something?" she questioned, brows furrowed slightly.  _  
_

The young agent with messy, light brown hair glanced up from the pages of colourful diagrams and notes, a dumbfounded expression on his face for a brief moment before his lips broke into an embarrassed smile. 

"I'm actually already a doctor," he informed her, carefully shutting the book and setting it in his lap. "Technically, I earned my doctorates in mathematics, chemistry, and engineering."

Rosemary's eyebrows shot up and a smile of awe broke across her face. 

"That's insane," she breathed out. "I'm actually working on earning a doctoral degree in history." 

His eyebrows rose slightly at this and she looked down, suddenly feeling foolish. Here she was, in front of a man who had accomplished three doctoral degrees in his probably rather short life (how had he done that?) talking about getting a phD in history. 

"I know, it doesn't quite compare to chemistry or engineering..." she shook her head, light brown tendrils falling into her face. 

"No, don't say that!" he assured her, and she looked up. "History is an equally important subject as any of those."

"In fact, I think there's so many fascinating career paths that leads to," he added. "I used to love history- not as much as math and science, of course, but I enjoyed every history class I've taken. I'm pretty sure when I was younger being a museum curator seemed incredibly cool."

"My dream goal is to be an archivist, but I'm open to other options," she admitted, feeling more encouraged by his response. "How did you get three doctoral degrees though? That's crazy, you're so young..."

"I graduated high school at twelve and I earned my first doctorate at seventeen so.. I had an early advantage," he said slowly, obviously trying not to make a big deal out of it. 

"I graduated high school early as well," Rosemary smiled, blushing lightly. "It was hard being that girl in high school, you know, um... a bit of a nerd. You don't feel like you fit in all the time."

Agent Reid seemed especially interested in this, and he looked into his lap. 

"It was, uh... rough being the smartest kid in school at times, definitely." He glanced back up at her, something in his eyes that she could not quite detect. But she could somehow understand anyway. "But people like us, we can rise above all that. I'm incredibly grateful to be where I am now."

Rosemary felt a twinge of jealousy, only wishing she had reached that stage of content in her life. It wasn't far off, but it felt like it would be forever until she was truly accepted somewhere, doing something she loved. 

"Well- I was originally just going to ask you if... you could get me a book," she finally managed, still flushed in the face. "I didn't mean to pry or anything, I got distracted."

"Don't worry about it," the friendly young agent reassured her. "A book? I just might have something here you'd like."

He leaned down to dig around in his satchel, pulling out several books. 

"Let's see... you probably don't want to read about neuropsychology... or this one on historical engineering... here we go."

He got up from his seat, approaching her bedside. Rosemary was suddenly very aware of how she must look up close after sitting in this bed for a few days- and he was undeniably cute. She tried to ignore the self-conscious thoughts to look at the book he offered her. 

"The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," Rosemary said with an involuntary smile, her eyes moving back onto his face. 

"A tad gross and slightly humorous," he chuckled. She accepted to book from his grip, her fingers lightly brushing his. Rosemary had never felt so conscious about herself and her actions around another person- maybe it was the fact he was so incredibly smart that had her worrying she would do something stupid. 

"I'll take your word on it," the brunette said with a quiet giggle. "My mother would never even think of opening a book like this, it makes her squirmish. My dad might give it a read, but he's less interested in dead bodies and more interested in dead languages."

"Like Latin?" Reid questioned with a slight frown of intrigue as he instead took the seat next to Rosemary's bed. 

"Yes- he's fluent in it, likes to speak it around the house and irritate my mother sometimes," Rosemary said with a fond smile as she ran her hand along the smooth book cover. "He's the one that taught me Latin and Greek. He's a classical studies professor at our nearby university. He taught me all about Greek mythology and..."

She froze, her hand stiff on the book cover as timid eyes reached concerned hazel ones. 

"Oh my god...." she spoke softly, her chest moving up and down rapidly as the realization hit her. "Is that why he kidnapped me? Is that why I was his next target?"

She pushed hair back from her face, suddenly terrified. If the golden masked man really had picked the perfect target, what if he _did_ come back to finish the job? 

"Rosemary, calm down," Reid insisted, his attention fully hers. "It... very well could be an important factor in your kidnapping, but you can't let it frighten you."

"What if he comes back?" she whispered, terrified eyes landing on his face. "What if they were right and he tries to come back and finish me off? I don't want to see that awful mask again-"

"Rosemary," he commanded her attention firmly, though his tone was gentle. "I am here to protect you. I know I'm mainly brains, but trust me- if I even so much as see a flash of gold step around the corner I _will_ take him down."

Rosemary stared in silence, chest still heaving as wide eyes remained open. 

"He will never touch you again," Reid added. "Our unit is doing everything in our power to stop him for good. I know you can't ever forget what happened, but you will pull through this."

A single tear dripped down her cheek as she watched him, her mind racing. She tried to tell herself she could trust this man. He was right about everything. He understood her, and she had to believe that he would not let anything happen to her. 

"Okay," she conceded in a murmur, shutting her eyes so she could wipe the wetness away from her lashes. He looked down, trying to give her space in her moment of emotional distress. 

"Enjoy the book," he said softly before he got up to take his own book back in his hands and open to the page he'd left off. Rosemary opened her book to page one, sniffling lightly before beginning to read. Her eyes flickered over the top of the book to look once more at the man entranced once more by the pages. A sense of calm began to come back over her before as her gaze returned to the off-white page in front of her.

* * *

"Has Rosemary mentioned anything to you recently that seemed abnormal?" Hotch questioned as he sat across the table from the petite woman, a slight shadow under his brow in the dim room. "Or have you noticed anything odd? In behaviour, anything she may have told you over the phone..."

"No, not at all," Rosemary's mother said with a crease between her brows, tucking dark hair behind her ear. "She was doing well at university, enjoying her time... she never had anything bad to say when she called, and she's not a big complainer either."

The raven-haired chief nodded, looking down at the table in thought. 

"No boyfriend at college?" he then asked.

She smiled at that, offering a slight, pitying smile. "Rosemary isn't really the kind of girl interested in dating," she informed him. "She's always been focused on her schooling and other interests. Not many boys took interest in her either."

"And she wouldn't lie to you about having someone in her life?" 

She seemed to grow a little offended at that. "Of course not. I mean, we're not as close as she and her father are but- she wouldn't lie to me about that."

Hotch's eyebrows rose just barely, though she couldn't really tell the difference since it was Hotch. 

"And they have a good relationship?" he delved, folding his hands on the table. 

"She was always a daddy's girl, and he adored her," she confirmed gently. "He got her interested in most of the things she loves now."

"And one of those things would be classical studies, would it not?"

She stiffened at the question. 

"Yes," she replied curtly. 

"Your husband doesn't have any tattoos, does he?"

"No. Agent Hotchner, are you suggesting my husband would harm our daughter? Because-"

"Ma'am, I'm just trying to eliminate any possibility that he could be a suspect," he interrupted her, sharp gaze on the woman. "The sooner I can take him off the list, the better for the both of you. But no one in victim's family is ever disregarded as a possibility in a case- it's just part of our procedure."

The woman pursed her lips but didn't press.

* * *

"When did you start teaching Rosemary about mythology?" Agent Morgan inquired as he sat across from the keen-eyed professor. 

The father crossed his arms as he sat straight in his chair, his eyes narrowing just a tad. "I've been teaching her ever since she was a little girl. A story here and there at bedtime, and when she got older she just started absorbing all the information I had to offer. She's incredibly smart."

"When your daughter recounted the way her attacker rendered her defenseless, she told us she felt a sting in her neck before losing consciousness. We figured that means he injected her with some kind of drug before grabbing her."

Mr. Lennox listened intently, though his eyes still conveyed some mistrust. 

"Her doctor was able to tell us that she had indeed been injected with midazolam," Morgan continued, dark eyes resting absolutely still on the other man's face. "Now, our team did a little background research on both you and Mrs. Lennox- and we found some interesting things from your past."

The man's eyes narrowed further, blue eyes cold. His body was tensed up in defensive body language, which the agent was able to quickly detect. 

"You used to be involved in some recreational drug use, as it turns out," Morgan continued, pretending that he was unbothered by the hostile look and body language. "Sold them too. It escalated to prescription drugs, heroin... and sedative."

"I was young!" Mr. Lennox suddenly said in defensive outburst. "Those years have long since passed and I got the help I needed. And you're sitting here trying to frame me for attacking my own daughter! This is unbelievable, this guy could have already killed someone else while you're trying to accuse me of hurting the most important person in my life!"

Morgan said nothing else, watching the explosion with calculating eyes. Mr. Lennox noticed the observation and put his face in his hands as soon as the outburst ended, rubbing it roughly. 

"I'm sorry for losing my temper, but I would never, ever harm my little girl," he murmured, bringing his hands back down and slumping in his seat. "And I won't sit here going along with this. Ask me actual questions, don't just set me up to look like the bad guy." 

Morgan pressed his lips together. 

"I think we've got enough for now," he said simply before getting up from his metal chair and walking over to the door.

* * *

"Did you see how defensive he was?" Morgan asked as he approached the rest of the team. 

"The drug connection is especially alarming," JJ said with a quick raise of her eyebrows. "There was just something off about all of his behaviour in there. But he did seem genuinely focused on her at the end there."

"Or he's really good at pretending he cares," Blake interjected. 

"What about the tattoo?" JJ shook her head. "Dad doesn't have any."

"Fake tattoo to match the persona the mask creates?" Blake countered, glancing at the other team members. "And she was barely conscious. Hallucinations are a side effect of the drug- she could have seen something wrong, too."

"There's just something overall fishy about all these connections her dad has with everything involved in this case," Morgan put in, dark eyebrows furrowed. 

"Well, if these connections mean something, we're this much closer to stopping him," Blake decided, and the rest of the team nodded slowly in agreement.

* * *

"Good news, Ms. Lennox," Dr. Luthra said as he approached the young woman's bedside. "One more day and you'll be free to go."

When he saw Rosemary's expression, Reid quickly interjected. 

"I'll bring more books tomorrow," he assured her, the brunette having finished her borrowed read already. 

"Your wrist is healing very well and your leg will be sore, but no infection or other issues to worry about," the doctor added with a kind smile. "Tomorrow a nurse will help you test out walking again, just to help the muscles untense and get them working smoothly again."

He nodded once and then exited the room. 

"You'll be here again?" Rosemary asked the agent, trying not to show her delight too evidently. 

"Sure will," he said cheerfully, putting his books away in his satchel. "Your parents are on the way back now, and you'll have a guard posted outside the door all night."

The thought of someone other than Agent Reid keeping guard all night made her a little uncomfortable, but surely his team needed him back and he had a home to get back to. What if he had a girlfriend worried about him? Waiting for him to come home? Or a wife at that... _no_ , there was no ring. 

"Okay," she said with a feigned smile. "Thank you for watching me today, and for letting me borrow your book. It was both parts equally gross and humorous."

Spencer chuckled and bowed his head in her direction. "I couldn't have picked anyone better to have to keep guard over," he admitted. "I can't remember the last time I spoke to someone so much like me. It makes the job feel less like a job." He gave a tentative smile before exiting.

Rosemary's fake smile became very real and she snuggled back into her pillows, unable to wipe the curve of her lips off her face.


	4. The Legend of Perseus

"Carefully, lift it over the edge of the bed."  
  
Rosemary shot a timid look Reid's way as he watched the nurse assist the brunette in getting off the bed. He returned the look with an encouraging smile and raised eyebrows, and she brought her attention back to the nurse. The woman held her arm out for Rosemary to hold onto and slowly, her legs swung over the side of the bed. Rosemary winced as her muscles twitched in her wrapped leg and looked at the nurse for instruction.   
  
"Slide down slow and keep holding on to me," the red-haired woman said gently.   
  
Rosemary nodded and let herself slide down until her feet touched the cold floor. But as she began to put weight on the leg, it ached. She bit her lip and gripped the woman's forearm tighter. She was standing, but couldn't bring herself to move yet.   
  
"Just one step at a time, at your own pace," the nurse coaxed.   
  
Rosemary took a shaky breath and stepped forward with her good foot before she was forced to move the other. Her knee bent involuntarily as she tried to step with the injured leg. But she persisted, letting the nurse lead her in Reid's direction. Rosemary tried to cheer herself on mentally and soon she was moving at a steady pace, finding the movements to come more and more naturally with every step. She was still moving delayed compared to her normal speed, but it was definitely progress.  
  
"Good, now I'm going to let you go now, just take a few cautious steps," the nurse encouraged. Rosemary tentatively let go of her forearm before taking her own steps forward. But her muscles suddenly spasmed in the hurt leg and she let out a soft cry, losing her balance.   
  
Reid shot out of his chair and caught her, helping her regain her standing. She gripped his arm tightly, feeling foolish for looking like such a klutz. There was a moment of awkward silence as the agent looked down at her hand, as if not used to it– she let go, and he cleared his throat. Rosemary couldn't possibly know that it wasn't exactly her so much as it was just one of those things about Spencer, like his hypersensitivity to light or loud noises. Being touched was a little iffy for him, though he became more comfortable with it if it was people he was very close with.  
  
"You okay?" he asked her then in deep concern, looking down at the brunette.   
  
"Yeah, sorry," she mumbled, trying to keep her focus on her steps so as not to embarrass herself again. The nurse came near, giving Reid a grateful nod before offering her arm again to Rosemary. She was helped back into bed and she fell back into her pillows as the nurse encouraged with sympathetic features, "It'll get better, don't worry." She then turned to leave the two alone again.  
  
"That was super embarrassing, nearly going headfirst to the floor," she brought up, an embarrassed grin coming onto her face. "So much for progress."  
  
"The fact you were even walking again like that is amazing," Reid argued, coming to sit beside her again. "Don't tear yourself down. I mean, you got stabbed in the leg and your muscles went all screwy. You're doing the best you can considering."  
  
"How are you so kind?" she wondered aloud, brow furrowed lightly as she stared at him, trying to figure Reid out.   
  
He pressed his lips together, big eyes lowering to gaze at the joined hands in his lap.   
  
"When so many people have been unkind to you and you see the ugliness I see in my work..." he trailed off, frowning. "You realize you have to be kind. You have to be the anomaly."  
  
Rosemary's mouth opened slightly as he returned his hazel-eyed gaze to her, a sad smile coming onto his lips.   
  
"Tell me more about yourself," Rosemary then said, hoping to cheer him up. "So you're super smart, you have a ridiculous amount of doctoral degrees..."  
  
"I have an eidetic memory and I can read up to twenty thousand words per minute," he added, leaning forward a bit in his seat.   
  
"Well, I definitely can't do that," Rosemary grinned. "What about your parents? Since you probably already know everything about mine..."  
  
Reid's face suddenly fell, though there was an attempt to fix the error on his part.   
  
"My mother has paranoid schizophrenia and I had to put her in a mental institution when I was eighteen," he said pretty matter-of-factly, his hands fidgeting slightly in his lap. "My father left because he couldn't take it anymore."  
  
Rosemary's brows pulled together and she looked at him not with pity, but guilt on her end. She shouldn't have asked.   
  
"I"m so sorry, I shouldn't have pried," she whispered, chest feeling as if it were caving inwards.   
  
"You couldn't have known my family history was so messed up," he shrugged, though she could tell he was still a little hurt by the thought of it.   
  
Rosemary's eyebrows furrowed in sympathy and she quietly added, "Well, despite all that, you turned out to be really, incredibly successful. It's inspiring."  
  
His eyes seemed to light up just a bit at that and he gave her a tiny, grateful smile. Rosemary smiled in return, a nice understanding passing between the two. She then plucked the next question off the top of her head and spoke.   
  
"So, what's your middle name?"

Immediately there was a groan and "Oh no, not this question-"  
  
"What?" she laughed, tilting her head in confusion. "Is it really that embarrassing?"  
  
"About as embarrassing as Dionysus Lardner's incorrect assumptions about railway travel," Reid emphasized, a laugh escaping his lips.   
  
"What? He only thought people would die of asphyxiation riding trains," Rosemary said with forced nonchalance, clearly poking fun.    
  
"You knew that?"   
  
"Give me some credit," Rosemary defended, making his smile widen.   
  
"Okay, okay- you've proven you're one smart girl. But I'm not telling my middle name."  
  
"Okay, would it help if I told you mine?" Rosemary coaxed, eyebrow arched derisively. "And it's pretty odd, so you'd better tell me yours after."  
  
Reid watched her in distrust before finally giving in and sighing, "Fine, what's yours?"  
  
Rosemary bit her lip before saying in a lower tone, "Minerva."  
  
"Your middle name is literally the name of the goddess of Wisdom?"  
  
"Right?" Rosemary exclaimed with a hand gesture. "It's cool and all, don't get me wrong. But my dad couldn't give me Athena? No one knows who Minerva is if you tell them she's a goddess, they only recognize her Greek counterpart!"  
  
"This isn't even a fair trade because that name is so cool," Reid shook his head, crossing his arms.   
  
"Touche," she agreed. "But you promised. Give it up, Doctor."  
  
Reid sighed and looked down at his jeans before mumbling, "Walter."  
  
Rosemary emitted an involuntary giggle and his head whipped up, his mouth opening in shock.   
  
"I'm sorry!" she said behind her hand, her eyebrows high. "It's really not bad! Spencer Walter Reid."  
  
"Doctor," he corrected with a teasing look.   
  
"I think it sounds incredibly vintage," she assured him, forcing her smile to disappear so she could offer a serious, meaningful look.   
  
"Maybe," he said with a thoughtful glance, fingers on his chin. "Rosemary Minerva Lennox."  
  
"It sounds like the protagonist of a young adult fantasy novel," she groaned, heading falling back into her pillows.   
  
"No, it's a beautiful name," he argued quietly, and she side-eyed him from her position.   
  
"You really think so?" she inquired in a tiny voice, lifting her head again to watch him though sparkling eyes.   
  
"Yeah, I do," he confirmed, a little bashfully. There was a brief, comfortable yet charged silence as she looked at him in appreciation and he looked back with the tiniest smile on his lips. He suddenly broke it, clearing his throat.   
  
"So, Mozart or Beethoven?" he asked, his smile becoming more awkward.   
  
"Hmm... Mozart," Rosemary answered, scrunching her nose lightly. "Beethoven is overrated."  
  
"That's what I've _been_ saying! Now, The Picture of Dorian Gray?"  
  
"A masterpiece," Rosemary countered, a triumphant smile on her face as he looked pleasantly surprised.   
  
After a few more rounds of questioning, the pair was interrupted by the ringing of Reid's cellphone. He pulled it out, an apologetic smile being sent her way and she nodded, trying to hide her disappointment at their being interrupted.   
  
"Severed head?- I'll head out right now, see you there."  
  
Rosemary's stomach fell. "Another one?"  
  
Reid nodded solemnly as he got up from his seat. "More victims this time."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
He looked uncomfortable and as if he was going to deny her, but she gave him a pleading, distressed look.   
  
"One man confronting another with the severed head of a woman- with snakes for hair. I bet you know exactly what the scene is, don't you?"  
  
She swallowed, nodding numbly. It was strange, how easily she'd been able to pretend she wasn't still living a waking nightmare by having light-hearted conversation with Agent Reid. Now reality was coming crashing down and she was beginning to feel like Atlas struggling to hold up the weight of the world at this new report.  
  
"I'll alert the guard to sit outside again while I'm gone, and hopefully your parents will be back soon," he told her gently.   
  
"You have to go?" she asked, eyes big and pleading.   
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
He went over to put books back in his bag and walk towards the door.   
  
"Goodbye, Spencer Walter Reid," she called after him, a slightly longing look in her eyes. He stopped while holding the door open, looking back with a tender expression on his face.   
  
"Goodbye, Rosemary Minerva Lennox," he responded, a brief smile sent her way before he left.   
  
Rosemary folded her hands over her stomach, eyes rolling up to stare at the dim white ceiling as she inevitably began to picture the description he'd given her. It turned her stomach, so she shut her eyes and urged herself to fall asleep. 

* * *

"Jesus," Blake muttered as she stared at the scene.   
  
"You know what this means don't you?" Hotch asked as he came up beside her, his attention also held by the gruesome scene before them.   
  
"The unsub is evolving," Blake shook her head. "He's using more people in his scenes, and he's going further in the detail. Every snake is perfectly place on her shaved head, he drainedthe  man's body of all blood so he would look as pale as a statue... it's _horrifying_."  
  
"I seriously didn't expect this, but... wow," Reid said as he walked up to the both of them.   
  
The scene depicted one man in Corinthian helmet and material around his lower body, holding his outstretched hand the head of a woman- whose hair had been entirely replaced with skinny, dead snakes. The second man was posed with arm up in defense, his body pale white from loss of every drop of blood in his veins.   
  
"This is a scene from the legend of Perseus," Reid explained, turning to the two. "His wedding to Andromeda is interrupted by Phineas and his men, and Perseus pulls out his prize from his previous battle with Medusa to turn all the opposing men to stone."

"We aren't working fast enough," Hotch said suddenly as he turned away from the scene. "He's collecting more and more victims and getting bolder in his depictions. If we don't hurry up, who knows what the body count will be in his next scene."

* * *

"Where's dad?" Rosemary inquired as her mother entered the hospital room, lunch in hand for her daughter.   
  
"I think he was going to get you some clothes to change into for tomorrow," Mrs. Lennox said casually, offering the bag of food to her daughter.   
  
"How did the questioning go?" Rosemary added.   
  
"It was... a little tense, they were suspicious of your father," Mrs. Lennox admitted, looking down with lips pressed together tightly as she took a seat.   
  
"What?" Rosemary burst out. "That's ridiculous, he would never!-"  
  
"You and I know that, Ro, but not these FBI people," the small woman shook her head. "We did our best to prove their suspicions wrong, but who knows what's going through their minds."  
"I hope they move on from him as a suspect," Rosemary said anxiously, biting her lip.   
  
"I'm sure once they realize they can't find anything other than hunches they'll forget about him," her mother reassured her, squeezing her hand lightly. "Now eat your lunch."  
  
The phone in the room suddenly went off and Mrs. Lennox got up to answer. "Hello?"  
  
Rosemary waited with bated breath to hear what was going on.   
  
"No, he's not here at the moment, he went to go eat and get some clothes for Rosemary a while ago," her mother replied into the phone with a slight frown. The conversation then ended as she hung up the phone.   
  
"Who was that?" Rosemary questioned with puzzled brown eyes.   
  
"Special Agent Reid?"  
  
Rosemary frowned, wondering what he could have been calling for. And why was he asking about her father?

* * *

"He's not there," Reid confirmed, an unsettled expression on his face.   
  
"Reid, go with Morgan back to the hospital to double check, Blake and I will go to Rosemary's house to check for him," Hotch ordered, already walking towards the black SUVs. "We've confirmed the bodies have been here for only a few hours now, and if he's been out of anyone's sight for a few hours, we have reason to be concerned."  
  
Reid and Morgan exchanged looks before everyone piled into the SUVs, the tires screeching against the pavement as they sped away from the scene.


	5. Callousness

Morgan and Reid burst into the room, and Rosemary shot up in her bed. Mrs. Lennox's head whipped up from her reading and she shook her head in shock.   
  
"What is it, agents?" she inquired, glancing at her daughter in wide-eyed confusion.   
  
"Mr. Lennox isn't back, is he?" Agent Morgan asked with intense gaze on the older woman, and Rosemary's eyes narrowed as she looked at the pair. Reid lowered his own gaze, refusing to look at the young woman and instead watching her mother, who was struggling to answer.   
  
"No, he's not, but what's the problem?" she said, this time with more force behind her voice.   
  
Morgan said nothing in response, instead pulling out his cell to dial someone.   
  
"Spe- Agent Reid, what are you asking about my dad for?" Rosemary demanded in a hushed voice as the tall agent walked over with an uncomfortable expression on his features. Rosemary could detect the guilt.   
  
"Are you chasing after my dad?" she then questioned, an incredulous look in her eyes. "Please, tell me I'm wrong."  
  
"I- I can't," Reid hung his head, unable to meet her intense gaze.   
  
"But he's innocent!" she insisted, tears springing to her eyes. "He would never, ever hurt me! You're chasing the wrong person, tell them to stop!"  
  
"Rosemary, your dad has been missing since being questioned this morning," Reid said quietly, attempting to keep the situation from escalating. "The last scene was set up within a time frame that could suggest... he organized it after questioning. I know you don't want to think about it like this, but we have to follow any and all leads. And considering he's still gone, this is becoming a dangerous situation."  
  
Her lips quivered and her big, teary eyes pleaded with him. Reid could barely look directly at her.   
  
"Don't let them hurt him," she begged softly. "He's good, I know it. Just don't hurt him."  
  
Reid's jaw clenched a few times out of nervous habit and he nodded once.   
  
"I promise, nothing will happen to him," he assured her. "It'll all get sorted out soon, okay?"  
  
She nodded in understanding, wiping under her eyes swiftly to stop tears from dripping down.   
  
"Hotch wants us to stay here while they head over to Rosemary's house," Morgan interrupted warily, and Reid glanced back, affirming that he understood the order.

* * *

Hotch and Blake arrived at Rosemary's apartment building, cautiously going up the stairs to her floor with backup in heavily padded suits following. They remained quiet and stealthy as they entered the corridor, approaching Rosemary's door. It was shut, and as Hotch tried the door, he found it was still locked. Hotch's eyes met Blake's and she nodded, then signaling to one member of backup to come closer. Hotch reached out to knock rapidly on the wooden door.   
  
"Mr. Lennox?" he called. "Mr. Lennox, open up. This is Agent Hotchner."  
  
They received no response. Hotch knocked again to no avail. The agents were forced to stand back so their accomplice could smash the lock on the door. It swung open, and the agents rushed in, guns held up in defensive position. More FBI enforcement followed to search the tiny place, but it was empty. In fact, nothing appeared to have been touched. The closet and dresser drawers displayed no evidence of being disturbed.   
  
"I think it's safe to say he never even came to her apartment," Hotch told Blake once defenses were down, looking around the small home. "Who knows where he could be by now?"   
  
"We're going to have to put out an alert," Blake sighed, pulling out her phone.  
  
"I'll let the rest of the team know what's going on," Hotch said as he pulled out his own phone, walking away and running his intense eyes over the place once more. 

* * *

  
"What do you mean he never went to her apartment?" Mrs. Lennox demanded, infuriated as Agent Morgan attempted to calm her down. "This is ridiculous, the FBI is just trying to set him up-"  
  
"Mom!" Rosemary suddenly interjected, catching the attention of the two agents and petite woman immediately. "Just... stop, okay? Getting upset isn't going to help anything- help dad. Just let them do what they have to do."  
  
Her eyes had filled with tears and her lips were pressed together so tight they went pale. Mrs. Lennox's demeanor slowly adjusted, the previously snappish woman now slouched as she took a seat back in her chair. She put her forehead against her hand, staring blankly at the floor and Rosemary sniffed, her eyes flicking momentarily in Reid's direction before avoiding him.   
  
"I need to get out of this room," she suddenly announced, her eyelids shutting tight as she tried to keep a level voice. "Agent Reid, would you mind taking me for a walk?"  
  
"Rosemary, I'm more than able-"  
  
"I said Agent Reid."  
  
The two woman were in a silent stand-off through matching chocolate eyes, and her mother once again shrunk in defeat after a minute. Reid looked at Morgan, who nodded in approval, before approaching the bedside to help Rosemary off. She slipped into the flimsy slippers the hospital had given her and held tightly onto his offered arm, very cautiously making her way out of the room.   
  
They walked in silence for a few minutes down the hall, and Rosemary stared straight ahead, deep in thought with her jaw clenched.   
  
"Something just isn't right about this," she finally spoke, turning her head to look at the agent with determined eyes. "I have a bad feeling about all of this, Spencer. I just have this terrible, awful feeling inside that he's not okay."  
  
She stopped walking and he paused, facing her with uncertainty in his features.   
  
"Statistically, intuition, or gut feeling is more often correct than not," he offered, clearly not sure of what else to say.   
  
"I know that," she sighed, weariness taking over. "But intuition won't get him back safely. I'm scared for him. What if this is what the killer wanted? And now my dad is just-"  
  
She shuddered lightly, her lip quivering again. "- just going to show up in the next scene."  
  
Reid shook his head, attempting to console her by replying, "We'll find him before he can do anything or anything is done to him. Our team is very good at what they do."  
  
"You keep telling me that, but reason just won't come to my aid right now," she said with a trembling chuckle, her eyes landing on the slippers on her feet.   
  
"Hey," he started, timidly touching the hand that gripped his arm before pulling his hand away again. "Logic can escape even the smartest minds sometimes. Sometimes our emotions win, and I know it's hard to give in to them, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. You don't need to be ashamed."  
  
Rosemary licked her lips, trying to calm the shaking of her body as she slowly lifted her head.   
  
"Spencer?" she asked tentatively, voice notches quieter.   
  
"Yes?" he frowned, tilting his head slightly.  
  
"When I leave the hospital tomorrow, are you gone for good?" she finally had the courage to inquire.   
  
His frown disappeared and he shook his head once, a hesitant smile on his lips.   
  
"Not for good, no. I mean, I'm not sure if they'll want _me_ to keep guarding you until the case truly comes to a close or anything but..."  
  
"Good," she suddenly blurted. "I mean- good that _you're_ not gone for good."  
  
All of the words seemed like a mess put together, but she figured he understood by the way he snorted.   
  
"Did you just snort?" Rosemary asked with raised eyebrows, her tone now teasing,   
  
"I don't do that often, I swear," he defended himself, appearing rather embarrassed and amused at the same time.  
  
"Sure you don't, _Doctor_ ," she taunted, a giggle shortly following.   
  
"I'll leave you stranded here if you keep up that mockery."  
  
"You wouldn't dare!"  
  
"I most certainly would, Rosemary. Don't underestimate my callousness."   
  
"Callousness?"  
  
"Did _you_ just snort?"

* * *

Morgan watched from outside the room as the cheerful pair walked back towards the door, lost in their own world of teasing and conversation.   
  
"Reid, can I see you a minute?" Morgan requested, smiling reassuringly at Rosemary as they stopped by the open door.   
  
Rosemary and Reid exchanged glances and he nodded, putting on a small smile for her. "Can you make it okay?"  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine," she murmured, giving one last strange look before walking into the room cautiously on her own.   
  
"I was just talking to her and- well, she's pretty freaked out about her dad," Reid explained as he approached Morgan. "She was telling me about her bad gut feeling on all this, that she's worried something is really wrong... I don't know, but it's got me thinking."  
  
"Reid?" Morgan interrupted, a hint of amusement in his eyes despite the more serious look about him at the moment.   
  
"Uh, yeah?"   
  
"You're getting too close, man," Morgan said honestly, shifting with a bit of discomfort but keeping insistent eyes on the younger agent.   
  
The intellectual's eyebrows twitched into a frown as he looked away, murmuring an, "Oh?"  
  
"I'm not here to punish you or anything," Morgan continued, rubbing the back of his neck. "But I'm just warning you to be careful about how close you get. You don't know what could happen and she's not in the healthiest emotional or physical state right now. Just... think carefully, okay?"  
  
"Don't I always?" Reid joked, though he dropped his gaze, his mood clearly falling just a bit.   
  
"I know you know what you're doing, I'm just looking out for you," Morgan added, trying to come off a little more gentle.   
  
"No, yeah, of course!" The reply was too quick, forced, but Spencer didn't know how else to respond to what felt like a punch to the gut.   
  
"Okay... that's it, man, you can head on in," Morgan nodded, his eyes mistrustful of the facade but deciding not to push it.   
  
"Actually, you know what? I think I'm gonna go get some fresh air, do you mind?"  
  
Morgan's mouth opened slightly, but he decided to just nod _'no'_ and gesture for the agent to go ahead. Reid quickly stepped past his team member, walking down the hall with a dull glaze over his eyes. 

* * *

Rosemary waited in her bed for a while for Reid to return, but he didn't.   
  
"Mom, you should go get some rest," Rosemary encouraged, a faint smile on her lips as she looked over at the woman.   
  
"Are you sure? I can stay here if you like..."  
  
"No, really, I'm fine," Rosemary shook her head, intensifying the smile to further reassure.   
  
"Well, all right, only if you're sure," Mrs. Lennox agreed, coming over to kiss her goodnight before leaving the room.   
  
As soon as her mother was gone, Rosemary glanced over at her bedside and caught sight of the next book she had started, courtesy of Spencer's personal library. She reached for it, then froze, unsure. With a soft breath, she brought her arm back to her and turned away from the bedside table, lying on her side and attempting to go to sleep.   
  
The golden mask returned behind her eyelids and she squeezed them tight, willing herself to forget.


	6. Mind and Heart

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm not sure if it was obvious but this story has already been written and I'm just kind of slowly uploading it here a few chapters at a time, and I know we're only a few chapters in at this point but I kind of have another Spencer x OC cooking up in my head so uhh you guys should let me know if I should definitely get started on it!

It was finally time for Rosemary to leave the hospital room that had become her home in the past few days. Her apartment door had been fixed, to her relief, and her mother had indeed picked up some clothes for her to change into since her previous outfit had been bagged as evidence. At least her mother had thought to bring leggings instead of jeans for bottoms, considering trying to pull tight denim over her leg would cause immense pain. Her mother had also nabbed one of her favourite sweaters, and as Rosemary stood in the bathroom she rubbed the soft sleeve against her cheek, staring into the mirror at her own reflection. She was also incredibly grateful for the mascara and tinted lip gloss her mother had brought her, missing having some colour in her face. She looked a lot better than she had on day one. 

As she stepped out of the bathroom, she was surprised to see Spencer in the room, the two of them alone. She hadn't seen him since he'd disappeared the night before, and she was dying to ask why he'd left. But she didn't want to seem desperate or clingy, so she instead cleared her throat and asked something more reasonable.   
  
"So, if I'm going back to my place, who's going to be guarding me after all?"   
  
The agent raised his hand, smiling awkwardly. "That would be me."  
  
She stared at him in contemplation, her eyes narrowing slightly.   
  
"Why are you acting so different?" she pried, arms crossed over the soft fabric of her sweater.   
  
"Different? I'm not acting different."  
  
"Yes, you are," she accused more pointedly this time. "What did Agent Morgan say to you? Is that why you left last night so suddenly?"  
  
Reid seemed, for once in his life, dumbfounded by the barrage of questions. He appeared to figure that it would spare him a lot of trouble to just tell the truth. 

"Yes," he dragged out, licking his lips nervously. "He said... well, it was stupid, not worth discussing."  
  
"What?" she insisted, coming closer. He stepped back subconsciously and her heart throbbed like it had been punched.   
  
"He... well, he told me I was getting too close and to be careful," the tall agent relayed, not meeting her questioning eyes.   
  
"Well- are you?" she asked, having plucked up the courage to be forward. He finally allowed himself to look at her, his mouth opening though no words came out.   
  
"I don't know," he admitted, hazel eyes focused intently on deep brown hues.   
  
Rosemary didn't know what to say. Her courage had only gotten her so far. And now she was too frightened to say anything that might be more revealing than she wanted.   
  
"You ready, sweetie?" Mrs. Lennox peeked her head in the door.   
  
"Yeah, we're coming," Rosemary said, gazing past Reid and shooting her mother a fake smile. She then brushed past him, walking straight for the door and waiting until she was past to let the hurt show on her features. Reid whirled around, lips parted again as if he wanted to say something else, but he decided against it and instead strode sheepishly after her. 

* * *

"At least they fixed the door," Rosemary muttered as she let herself and Spencer into her tiny place, setting her keys on the kitchen counter as soon as they walked in. The agent shut and locked the door behind them, taking a look around the place he had not yet encountered. It was modestly furnished, simple- but he could see elements of Rosemary everywhere. From the stacks of books to the scattered school papers and pastel blankets- it was all her.   
  
"Do you want something to drink?" Rosemary asked as she entered the kitchen.   
  
"Water, thanks," Reid replied, slightly distracted as he walked around, his eyes roaming the book covers and papers.   
  
He stopped when he saw a photo on the table in a frame, bending slightly to look closer. Rosemary approached warily, catching onto the redirection of his attention. She set the two glasses of waters down on the coffee table, taking a seat and waiting for him to notice her.   
  
"Sorry," he quickly apologized, tearing his eyes away from the image of her and a male he had never seen before, hugging in what appeared to be a wonderland of snow. "Is that your boyfriend?"  
  
Rosemary blushed a deep red, immediately shaking her head 'no'. Reid sat beside her, taking his glass of water and sipping some as she came up with an answer.   
  
"That was my best friend in high school," she explained, interlocking her fingers in her lap. "My  _only_ friend."  
  
Reid eyebrows tugged together in guilt for asking. Rosemary lowered her gaze, speaking as she picked at the fibers of her sweater.   
  
"His name was Dev. He asked to borrow a book from me freshman year and that's how our friendship began."  
  
Reid stared in silence as she spoke, his big hazel eyes full of �solemn realization.   
  
"People can be so  _awful_ ," she whispered, her lips quivering. "He had everything going for him. Top of our class, right above me- we used to joke about knocking each other down to second ranking every time we got grades back."  
  
She swallowed a hard lump in her throat and forced herself to look at her companion, eyes shining.   
  
"He committed suicide right before graduation."  
  
"I'm sorry," Spencer said quietly.   
  
"Me too," Rosemary mumbled before breathing in deeply, running her fingers through her roots.   
  
Spencer hesitated before adding, "My girlfriend was killed right in front of me."  
  
Rosemary's eyes slowly found their way back to his, her breath caught in her throat. It was a very sudden admission, perhaps not the best thing you wanted to tell someone you might potentially be interested in, but Spencer had never been all that good with socially acceptable behaviors. Though he seemed to have control over his emotions, as he spoke again his voice was thicker.   
  
"Everything got mixed up and she wasn't supposed to be involved..."  
  
Something inside of him snapped and he swallowed hard.   
  
"And then she was dead. You think you can save everyone you care about, no matter what..."  
  
"-But you can't," Rosemary interjected, both of them staring at the floor. "Not always, anyway."  
  
A silence filled the room.   
  
"Do you mind if I do some work?" Rosemary asked shakily, breaking the quiet. "I'm a few days behind now and I have some research to get back to."  
  
"No, please," Spencer broke out of his trance, briefly smiling and gesturing for her to go on. "Just think of me as a home security system. You'll barely even know I'm here."  
  
Well, that wasn't true, Rosemary thought. In fact, it was quite the opposite- she could feel him everywhere she went now.

* * *

  
"We've got borders secure and every man and woman we have in state law enforcement is out looking for this guy," JJ remarked as she and the rest of the team left the conference room, blue eyes intense and focused. "There's no way he'll make it out of the state before someone turns him in."  
  
"Let's just hope so," Hotch muttered. "We haven't been alerted of any new crime scene yet, but there's no telling what might happen as more time passes."  
  
"There could be one more thing that could give us some clues," Blake suggested, turning as facing the group as they halted in the main room.   
  
"What?" Hotch asked, eyes darting to the brunette.   
  
"We talk to Rosemary and see if there's any way we can retrace her steps to find the place she was held captive," she suggested, crossing her arms. "She said there was a camera in there watching her and that was how she communicated to him. Maybe we find out what computer the camera is hooked up to... we're way ahead of the game."  
  
"Good thinking, I'll give Reid a heads up," Hotch nodded. "We should get going now to pick them up."

* * *

Rosemary had gotten up from the sofa to retrieve her laptop from her room. But as she searched around, she was unable to locate the device. 

"Is there a laptop out there?" she called from her room. Spencer scanned the room, looking on the side of the couch and under the papers on the table.  
  
"Nope, nothing here," he called back. But he quickly got distracted by the loose papers on the table, picking one up to start reading. In no time he was halfway through the paper mess, his eyes running at top speed down the pages.  
  
"That's odd," she said as she re-entered the room, looking somewhat frustrated. "Maybe my mom moved it or something- oh, don't read those!"  
  
Her panicked tone surprised Spencer, who looked up from the paper in his hand with confused eyes.   
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It's not that good, really, I haven't even revised it yet-"  
  
"What are you talking about? This is incredibly well-thought out, the ideas are clearly and astutely presented... this is one of the most amazing dissertations I've read."    
  
"You're just trying to be nice," Rosemary shook her head, abashed as she stood before him. Rosemary knew she was a smart woman, but more often than not her confidence was faltering. Especially being around someone as incredibly intelligent as Spencer, she worried that she would seem like an amateur.   
  
"Rosemary, don't put yourself down," he suddenly said, his voice more forceful than she was used to. "I wouldn't lie about how intelligent you are. You're an amazing person with an even more amazing mind. What is there to lie about?"  
  
Rosemary stood wide-eyed, not sure what to say. Reid seemed suddenly aware of how passionate his words might have come off, and immediately his face relaxed.  
  
"I'm sorry," he murmured. Before she could respond, his cell phone rang. Reid gave her an apologetic look before picking up.  
  
"Hey," he greeted into the phone. He listened intently for the next few seconds, nodding and glancing at Rosemary. "We'll be ready to go."  
  
He hung up, and Rosemary gazed enigmatically at him.   
  
"Ready to go  _where_? Is it about my dad?"  
  
"Not entirely. They want to find the warehouse you were held captive in and see if we can obtain anything from the camera."  
  
Rosemary's heart sunk doubly, mainly at the thought of having to return to the hellhole she'd woken up in, and also at the fact there was still no word on her father. It had only been one day, but she knew that statistically, if he was being held against his will (as she and her mother believed despite the FBI), he wouldn't last much longer.   
  
"Are you going to be okay?" Spencer asked, stepping forward in concern.   
  
"Yeah," she blinked, feigning a nonplussed smile, though her body language conveyed discomfort.   
  
"I'll be right by your side for this, you have nothing to worry about."  
  
Rosemary looked into his eyes and knew with all of her mind- and heart- that she could trust him.


	7. Domino Effect

While clambering into the back of the black SUV with Spencer, Rosemary had not intended to lean too hard on her injured wrist- but as soon as it happened, the domino effect could not be stopped. She yelped and jerked her hand away from the pleather seat, losing her balance and jolting forward. As Spencer turned to see what was the matter, their heads collided.   
  
Immediately both were apologizing, Rosemary trying to ignore the doubling of pain from two areas of her body as she rambled.   
  
"Everything okay back there?" came the amused voice of JJ from the front seat, her blonde head turning to look back at the pair.   
  
"Fine," they responded in unison, which earned Spencer an interested look from his colleague. She quickly turned back around as Morgan pulled away from the curb, the car zooming away down the street.   
  
"Gosh, your forehead is all red right there," Spencer muttered reticently, his finger reaching to lightly graze Rosemary's skin near the hairline. She felt her face warm up at the contact, but she forced herself to shrug as if it hardly bothered her.   
  
"Now, Rosemary, we're going to drive to the location you turned up at after escaping the warehouse," JJ. said from the front seat, glancing back at the brunette with warm, encouraging eyes. "What we're going to do is have you backtrack from there so we can hopefully locate the warehouse. I know you said you ran for a while, but chances are you didn't get incredibly far from your starting point."

"What is he's there?" Rosemary suddenly asked, growing nervous. "I don't think it's so safe to go back to that place..."  
  
Reid glanced at her in deep concern, pressing his lips together.   
  
"Our team is more than capable of taking care of him if he happens to be in the same location," JJ assured her. "But chances are that the unsub has been moving locations- we don't doubt he's smart enough to have kept on the go."  
  
"Right," Rosemary nodded, putting on a brave front. She hated herself for continually doubting her safety, their abilities... but it was hard when just a few days before she had almost no hope of being alive for much longer.   
  
"Does this area look familiar to you, Rosemary?" Morgan spoke from the driver's seat, the car slowing in the commercial area. Rosemary looked out the window, frowning as she tried to remember.   
  
Then the memory of standing down the street by that very cafe occupied by people enjoying lunch outside hit her, and she knew exactly where she was.   
  
"There," she whispered. Swallowing to parch her suddenly dry throat, she raised her voice so she could be heard. "There, just down the street. I was standing there and then I passed out."  
Spencer watched her in grim curiosity as she stared out the window. His eyes seemed to wonder just how she held herself together like this as she neared a location he knew she would be trying to forget for the rest of her life.   
  
"I'm gonna park and then we're going to try and backtrack from where you were last standing, all right?" Morgan asked as he pulled the SUV over.   
  
"I think I can remember where I came from," Rosemary agreed, her stomach clenching up.   
  
The sleek black SUV was put in park and the four got out, including Hotch and Blake from the SUV in front of them. They stood along the sidewalk and Rosemary stepped forward to the curb, pointing.  
  
"I blacked out there," she noted, her hair ruffling in the slight wind. "But I came from... that direction. I was running.. I remember, the sewer I came out of was over there."   
  
She was oblivious to the team surrounding her now, hurrying along the pavement to make it further down the street. Soon she caught sight of it- the hole in the ground that had saved her life. The agents had caught up to her by then, catching her attention.   
  
"Are you able to recall which direction you came from before you exited the sewers?" Hotch questioned as he came up beside her.   
  
Rosemary frowned, stuck in her head. "I ran straight for a long time, and based on the direction I exited, I must have been running north from there."   
  
She gestures and the agents exchanged looks.    
  
"Let's get back in the cars and follow the road straight until we find something," Hotch ordered, everyone turning to get back to the vehicles.   
  
"That was helpful, right?" Rosemary whispered in Spencer's direction, dark eyebrows furrowed.   
  
"We know what direction we're going in, which is better than where we started, so yes," he reassured her as they (much more carefully) got into the SUV. 

* * *

  
After about fifteen minutes of driving, a rusty looking abandoned warehouse came into view.  
   
"That's gotta be it," Morgan announced, making a turn towards the weed-covered lot.   
  
Rosemary began to worry her bottom lip, her wrist throbbing again under the cast. She had five federal agents with her, she reminded herself. They'd be in and out in a jiffy. Both SUVs parked once more and everyone got out, taking precautions as they approached the building.   
  
"Reid, stay back with Rosemary so we can confirm it's safe to enter," JJ commanded with a look in the younger agent's direction. He nodded and the others moved forward, looking for an accessible entrance with guns in hand.   
  
Rosemary watched in nervous anticipation as they all quickly disappeared inside the warehouse, letting her lip free of the sharpness of her teeth.   
  
"All clear," Reid told her as he listened through his earpiece, gesturing for her to walk forward. Rosemary licked her lips and moved her shaking legs, the pair making it past the entrance two of the agents had disappeared through. Inside it smelled as musty as Rosemary's senses remembered, and there was no bright lighting apart from some emergency red lights and the constant dripping of water from unused pipes.   
  
Spencer clicked on his flashlight to lead them through the echo-inducing corridors, passing stock rooms and what seemed to be an emergency exit.   
  
"Is any of this familiar?" he asked, glancing back at her as they walked onward.   
  
"No, I don't think I was in this area," she replied, shaking her head. "When I escaped the room I was in, I found a room full of pipes and electrical controls. If we can find that, I think I can lead us to the right place."  
  
Suddenly a figure emerged from the room to the left, and Rosemary let out a brief shriek as Spencer shined the flashlight on Morgan.   
  
"We're over here," he told the two, his eyes flickering over Rosemary. She pretended she hadn't just almost had a break down out of fright, mumbling an apology then, following Spencer into the room where the other agents waited.   
  
"We need to be looking for the electrical room, that's where Rosemary escaped into the underground sewers," Spencer confirmed, and the team members frowned in thought.   
  
"If I'm right, that pipe right here should lead us straight to it," Reid added, pointing towards higher up on the wall. "See those exposed wires? They seem to follow the path of this pipe, maybe a few others."  
  
"Then let's go, we don't have any time to waste," Hotch decided, flashlights aiming towards the back exit of the room to keep following the path.   
  
After a few more minutes of walking, Rosemary's limbs stiffening at even the slightest sound (which Spencer noticed easily), they reached a new corridor, with dim, flickering lights and Rosemary stopped in her tracks.   
  
"This is it," she alerted them, a cold jolt running through her body. "To the left is the way to the electrical room- right is where the room was that I was held in."  
  
"We'll split up," Hotch ordered, turning back towards the group of agents. "Blake and JJ, come with me to the electrical room. Morgan, take Reid and Rosemary to the room. Look for that camera and we'll see if we can get it down."  
  
Everyone nodded in understanding of his instructions and the group split in half. As Rosemary walked, the dim corridor played upon her frightened subconscious. A shadow up ahead made her do a double take, he eyes expecting the golden-masked man to reveal himself. But, of course, it was nothing.   
  
The metal door was down, different from Rosemary's last view of it.   
  
"I tried to trap him back in here when I escaped, but he got out. I don't know how."  
  
"He probably had his own remote hooked up to the door controls so that while the buttons could lock someone in from the outside, he also had a means of getting out in case he himself got caught in there," Spencer explained softly, stepping towards the green and red buttons on the small panel.   
  
"Of course," Rosemary said bitterly.  
  
She jumped as the metal door gave a shake before sliding upward. She glanced at Spencer, who gave her an apologetic look, gesturing towards the button he'd pressed. Morgan waited with his gun held in front of him, Rosemary on edge as she waited to see what would be held within.   
  
"What the hell is _this_?" Morgan asked with a troubled frown, lowering his gun at the scene before them.


	8. Short-Circuit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a short chapter, but here we go from the cliffhanger!

Rosemary and Spencer followed behind Morgan as they slowly approached the scene laid out before them in the damp room.   
  
A singular, long metal table stood on it's own with an open laptop resting on top, the screen facing the opposite direction of the trio. Beside it was the very camera that had been watching Rosemary's every move days ago, connected to the device by a short chord.   
  
"Oh my god," Rosemary choked out, finally noting the details of the laptop. "That's- that's my laptop."  
  
Spencer and Morgan exchanged a look before the former faced Rosemary.   
  
"You're sure that's your laptop?" he asked her quietly.   
  
"Yes," she whispered, her eyes wide. "That was missing from my apartment, how.. how did it get _here_?"  
  
Spencer shook his head, multiple theories popping up in his own head that he didn't want to worry her with at that moment.   
  
"I'm going to look on it," Morgan warned the young woman. "I just need to check out what's going on here, don't worry."  
  
How could she not worry? That was her laptop, sitting in her personal hell as if to taunt her. She didn't know how it had been retrieved in the first place from her home, but the sinking feeling in her stomach only made her recall the last person who had spare keys to her apartment had been her father... the very person who had been missing for nearly two days now. In her mind, this was only further proof that someone had taken him and had been framing him from the beginning.  
  
The agent began speaking through his comm to the other group, relaying the scene to them.  
  
"Reid, take a look at this," Morgan murmured from the other side of the table, his eyes fixated on the screen as he watched in grim fascination.   
  
As Spencer walked over to look at the screen, Rosemary passed them up, her eyes glued to the damp patch near the wall where she had woken up. She stopped right in front of the spot, unaware of the increased rate of her breathing and pumping heart. The golden face flashed before her eyes again and she quickly covered them with her hand, her leg throbbing under her clothes. Screams suddenly came out of nowhere and she covered her ears then, opening her mouth and saying things she couldn't make out through her muffled hearing. She could feel tears leaking past her eyes and the more she tried to avoid thinking about everything that scared her, the more it rose up to the surface and forced her to watch behind shut eyelids.   
  
She whirled around and forced her eyes open, catching a look at the footage playing on the laptop where the sound had evidently come from. She saw _his_ figure and she began to cry, shaking her head while still covering her ears. He grabbed at someone else on the screen and she dropped to the floor, sobbing and shaking her head continuously.   
  
"Shut it off, Morgan!" Spencer ordered in a panicked voice, prompting the other agent to shut the laptop hastily and both turned to approach Rosemary, who was having some sort of traumatic fit on the floor. Spencer was feeling scared himself, and his own tendencies told him to refrain from going near or making contact. But he pushed the discomfort away to break his habit and come forward, kneeling and placing his hands over hers.   
  
"Rosemary- Rosemary, look at me!" he demanded in a soft, harried tone, his hands shaking on hers. "Rosemary, it's Spencer, look!"  
  
Her eyes were clenched shut so hard he wasn't sure he could ever get her to open them, but she ceased her panicked speaking and quit writhing, her hands still over her ears. The creases on her face from screwing it up in pain and shutting her eyes tight suddenly smoothed out and she breathed- still at an unhealthy pace, but it was slowing.   
  
"What's my middle name, Rosemary?" Spencer asked, trying to help her fixate on something else, anything else. "Rosemary, talk to me."  
  
Rosemary's lips quivered before she parted them, whispering in a teary voice, "W-Walter. Your middle name is Walter."  
  
"Good, that's good, Rosemary. Please, open your eyes for me."  
  
Morgan watched in silence, his thick eyebrows furrowed in a slight, concerned frown as he watched Spencer attempt to calm the brunette.   
  
"I can't," she insisted, her chest beginning to heave up and down again.   
  
"Yes, you can," Reid told her firmly, worrying that she would return to a panicked state if he didn't convince her fast enough.   
  
"I don't want to see him," she admitted, her voice shaky again as more tears leaked out from under her eyelids.   
  
"You won't see him, you'll only see me," Spencer convinced her, his fingers curling more securely around her hands. "I'm right here. Look."  
  
She swallowed and took a few more precarious breaths before allowing her eyes to open, wide pupils quickly constricting as she adjusted to the dim lighting in the room. She searched his face until brown hues found focused hazel ones, and Rosemary was able to let out a deep, reassured breath. She could feel his shaking hands covering hers and realized he had never allowed himself to touch her before- she had figured it was perhaps a neurodivergent habit, something he preferred to avoid. But he had overcome it for her- just to help Rosemary release herself from this traumatic episode.   
  
"I'm okay," she whispered, trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She began to pull her hands away from her ears and immediately he broke contact, bringing his hands close to his body again.   
  
"I'm sorry, I should have thought before we played the videos while you were in here," he began to ramble, the guilt and effects of the tense situation making him talk far too fast and excessively. "I should have known that being in this place would trigger the stimulation of your amygdala and cause a traumatic episode-"  
  
"Reid, it's okay, man," Morgan interrupted, coming over and placing a hand on the agent's shoulder. "She's fine now."  
  
Reid's lips locked shut and he lowered his bashful eyes.   
  
"You stopped it," Rosemary reminded him, still looking a bit pained though she wanted to reassure him. "That's all that matters."  
  
Spencer slowly stood back up and Morgan stepped in to help Rosemary get back on her feet as well.   
  
"We're going to have to take both the camera and laptop in so Garcia can pull everything important off here," Morgan decided as he walked back over to the table, picking up the items. As he did so, however, a sudden alarm began blasting and Rosemary jolted, all three looking around the large room as the alarm repeated the same painful frequency loud and clear. Eerie red lights took over and Rosemary and Reid spoke suddenly at the same time.   
  
 _"The door!"  
_  
Morgan looked up from the devices and saw the metal door was quickly shutting on them, about to close them in the room. Spencer grabbed Rosemary's arm and ran, Morgan trailing behind them as he held onto the laptop and camera. The pair ducked under the door and made it out into the corridor, turning around to make sure Morgan had made it out. He suddenly rolled out from the under the shaking metal, clutching the items to his chest protectively, just before the door made contact with the hard floor.   
  
"Go!" he ordered the pair, who quickly began running back the way they'd come, the only lights to lead them out being the red emergency hues that had come on all over the warehouse.   
  
"Are you guys okay?" Reid spoke into his comm, waiting for the other agents to confirm in his earpiece. He seemed to hear a response that satisfied them, telling Morgan as they bolted down the corridors, "They're right behind us. But they have no idea what triggered the alarms."  
  
"Yeah, well we can worry about that once we're out of here," Morgan grunted.   
  
Rosemary's leg was killing her, but she couldn't stop, not when she feared worse than the alarms going off. Soon they all broke out of the warehouse, back into bright daylight, and they were able to slow to a stop and take a breather.   
  
Hotch, Blake, and JJ emerged next and stopped by the group, everyone out of breath and wondering what had happened as the alarms echoed out into the lot.  
  
 _"_ That son of a bitch," Morgan suddenly said in a breathy voice, looking at something above.   
  
"What?" Blake questioned, hand on her stomach as her chest heaved.   
  
"He was watching us the whole time," Morgan replied through clenched teeth, pointing at the warehouse. Everyone turned and caught sight of the camera on corner of the the warehouse brick walls, which had a bright red light on. 

  
Before they could do anything else, the camera suddenly twitched, as if short-circuiting within, and then the light flashed off and the camera faced downward, as if dead.   
  
"Let's get out of here, now!" Hotch ordered, pointing everyone back towards the parked SUVs.   
  
Despite being out of breath, everyone jogged back over to the black vehicles to hop in and speed far away from the warehouse.


	9. Mistakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I built a playlist for Rosemary and Spencer while writing this and I'm listening to it again and I'm emo it's fine. Also I just realized maybe I should ... include Rossi bc he's been missing for eight chapters lmao I'm the worst I'm sorry

"Oh my god," Penelope breathed out as she watched the video playing on the laptop screen, tears forming in her eyes. "Sir, I can't- I can't watch these-"  
  
"Just copy and send us whatever is on the laptop," Hotch told her through the connection. "What are we looking at?"  
  
"Um, well it looks like multiple video files saved from the camera Derek brought me," she explained, blinking away the wetness in her eyes. "Pictures, too... of the crime scenes. Before we found them anyway. The videos are of the other victims- you were right, they were taken in different locations."  
  
"But why Rosemary's laptop?" Rossi inquired, gesturing with his hand. "How did it just _happen_ to end up there?"  
  
"Well, if her father is really the one we're after, he could have stopped at her place just to grab the laptop after questioning and then disappeared," Blake suggested, shrugging lightly. "He locked up and left everything else where it was, probably thinking we wouldn't catch on that fast to just one missing item."  
  
"Then why leave it for us to find?" Hotch shook his head. "And why use hers specifically? It doesn't make sense. We profiled that the unsub has a low self-esteem, most likely brought on by parental or peer abuse, and feels the intense need to prove their abilities. The golden mask we now know about adds to the idea of a falsified confident persona. Why implicate someone else and let them take the credit?"  
  
"I've sent you all the video footage and images now," Garcia interrupted over the speaker.   
  
Hotch clicked the remote and the files appeared on screen, a video immediately playing.   
  
"That's Rosemary," Blake noted suddenly.  
  
Spencer's eyes were glued to the screen, the brainiac silent for once.   
  
"Turn it off, please," he requested quietly. The other agents looked at him strangely, and JJ gave Hotch a nod- but before he could pause the video, it cut off.   
  
"That's strange, are any of the other videos missing footage?" Morgan asked Garcia while Hotch turned his attention on Spencer.   
  
"Not that I could tell- that's the only video that cuts off before we get to see anything else."  
  
"Reid, are you okay?" the chief agent asked quietly, his hawk-like gaze trained on the uncomfortable young man.  
  
"I'm fine I just- didn't want to watch that," he explained, still looking down.   
  
"Why don't you go check on Rosemary?" JJ suggested, although Morgan quickly sent a pointed look her way. Her eyes challenged him in return and he gave in slowly and silently, Hotch noticing the entire exchange. Rossi and Blake, the last two, were sending each other baffled glances, completely out of the loop here.   
  
"Okay," Spencer agreed, still rather reserved, before he got up and left the room.  
  
"Sir, there's something else," Garcia said out of nowhere. "Forensics got a chance to look over the laptop and camera for prints."  
  
"And?"  
  
"Well, sir- the fingerprints found on the camera match Rosemary," she finished.  
  
An uncomfortable silence suddenly came over the room and everyone seemed a little stunned. Hotch walked over to the window and peeked through the blinds, watching Rosemary and Spencer interact, the latter in seemingly much better shape now that he was out of the room. He couldn't help but think back on his comments about the profile, his confusion on letting someone else take the credit for the killer's work– maybe it wasn't that. Maybe the killer was making an effort to save himself... to let go of any dead weight. _Rosemary_. 

"We may need to consider that Rosemary could be an accomplice," Hotch announced to the agents, turning away from the blinds. "And if that's the case, she's just a distraction from the unsub's grand finale."

* * *

"What else was on the laptop?" Rosemary asked Spencer quietly, looking around the FBI headquarters in discomfort. Normally, it would be incredibly amazing to be in such a prestigious building- but not when you were part of an ongoing investigation and it was _your_ laptop agents had recently uncovered.   
  
"Video footage, pictures of the crime scenes," Reid admitted, though his eyes would not focus on her.   
  
"Was... was there footage of me on there?" Rosemary inquired further, biting her lip anxiously.   
  
"Yes," he confirmed, still refusing to look at her.   
  
"Spencer, what's wrong?" she urged, growing worried by his odd behaviour.   
  
"I couldn't watch it," he finally told her, looking at her warily and swallowing something hard in his throat. "You looked so-"  
  
"I know," she said as she dropped her gaze. "I'm sorry you had to see that."  
  
"You have no reason to be sorry," he shook his head. " _I'm_ sorry. I'm sorry that this happened to you."  
  
Before Rosemary could reply, the agents were emerging from the conference room and coming right for them. They quit talking, tearing their eyes away from each other as they awaited information.   
  
"Rosemary, Morgan is going to have to take you in for questioning," Hotch announced, and the brunette suddenly shot a panicked look at Reid.   
  
"Questioning for what? I know it's my laptop, but I didn't put it in that warehouse-"  
  
Just as Hotch opened his mouth to respond, his cell phone went off. He quickly answered and nodded at Morgan as he put it to his ear. The agent came towards Rosemary to begin leading her off and she glanced back at Spencer, her eyes wide. He clenched his jaw tightly, knowing he could not do anything because his job was his priority- but this seemed all _wrong_.   
  
" **Wait**. Morgan, bring her back."  
  
Morgan and Rosemary turned around, staring at Hotch for an explanation, the brunette's chest moving up and down at an increased pace due to her fright.   
  
"Police found Mr. Lennox," Hotch told them, suddenly avoiding Rosemary's eyes.   
  
"Where is he?" she demanded, relief flooding through her. This would all be okay, they had found her father!   
  
"Let's go," he said, ignoring her question as he revolved to walk towards the elevators. The other agents swiftly followed, Rosemary hurrying up to fall in step beside Spencer.   
  
"Why won't he tell me anything?" she whispered as they walked.   
  
"I don't know," he lied, allowing her to step into the elevator first. Rosemary frowned but said nothing further, focused on seeing her dad again after the past few days. 

* * *

Rosemary watched out the window as the SUV sped down different roads, wondering how far away her father was. Soon they turned into what seemed like a forest preserve, one that became vaguely familiar to her. Here were the Great Falls of Virginia, a place she had been perhaps once years ago with her family.   
  
"I don't understand why we're here," Rosemary remarked as the SUV drove further in. As they turned down one road, however, she could see the blazing of police car lights and crime scene tape. Her stomach fell down ten flights of stairs.   
  
"What's going on?" she asked louder, quickly losing control of herself.   
  
Spencer glanced at her from his seat, turmoil in his eyes. He had picked up on Hotch's behaviour quickly back at headquarters- but he couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth then.   
  
"Rosemary, just stay calm," JJ said from the passenger seat in a soothing voice, turning her head back to look at her with sympathetic eyes.   
  
"I won't _"stay calm_ "!" Rosemary burst out, unclicking her seatbelt in a hurry.   
  
"Rosemary, what are you doing-"  
  
"Rosemary, no!" Spencer shouted as she opened the SUV door, Morgan slamming on the brakes as he heard the commotion. The brunette scrambled out of the vehicle, losing her balance from the sharp brake and falling. Her hands dug into the tiny pebbles that covered the gravel, as did her knees, but she didn't care. She quickly heaved herself back up, rushing towards the crime scene tape and police cars as her wrist throbbed in pain.   
  
_"Rosemary, wait!"_  
  
She ignored Spencer's pleading, hearing the car doors slam in the background as she ran. She ducked under the tape and shoved past crime scene investigators, continuing to ignore the voices coming her way until she was forced to come to a screeching halt.   
  
A scream got caught in her throat as she stared, her face draining of all colour. She felt trapped in a state of sleep paralysis, a true waking nightmare. She couldn't speak as she stared at her father's lifeless body, resting on a wooden float that was now on shore beside the slow-moving river.   
  
"Rosemary!"  
  
She recognized her mother's voice, but even that could not tear her gaze away from the display. And it truly was an exhibition- her father was dressed in pure white material resembling the fashion of Ancient Greece, his feet bare. In his hands, seemingly glued to stay put was a conch shell. This was a taunt, a proving of capability.   
  
Rosemary's mother reached to bring her daughter close, but the brunette squirmed out of her grasp and turned, running away from the scene. She ran past the agents who watched her in silent sympathy. Spencer looked towards Hotch, suddenly overwhelmed with emotion.   
  
"You should have told her," he stated with hurting eyes. " _You should have told her._ "  
  
Hotch said nothing, his mouth shut and his eyes betraying a sliver of guilt. Spencer found himself suddenly repeating the words over and over and JJ was forced to step closer, detecting that his emotions were now spiraling out of control and forcing him to fall into glitch-like habit, something she could not bear to witness.   
  
"Spence, focus on me," she murmured, putting her hands on his upper arms with a slightly firm grip. "She's going to be upset, she would have been upset no matter what we told her-"  
  
"But you didn't tell her and now she's even worse!" he argued, his features shifting in conflict with his whirling emotions.   
  
"Spencer-" Hotch began, trying to break in.   
  
"Just leave me alone, okay?" Spencer tore himself out of JJ's hold, putting his hands up defensively. "I- I need to check on Rosemary."  
  
He made his way past the group, Blake's eyes showing surprise at the encounter.   
  
"I told you he was getting too attached," Morgan told them all, growing frustrated. "What's he going to do if he finds out she's hiding something?"  
  
"We don't know that yet," Hotch argued quietly.   
  
"But if we do?" Morgan pressed, shaking his head in disbelief. "It's too late now. That kid is going to get his heart ripped out of him if this goes on much longer."  
  
No one else said anything further, most of them realizing deep down that he wasn't entirely wrong.   
  
"I'm going to go talk to the investigators," Hotch remarked before walking away from the group. Blake glanced back at the SUVs where Spencer stood hesitantly before the door. She sighed to herself before following Hotch, and JJ took the liberty of stepping after them. Morgan crossed his arms and sighed deeply, staring at the body a few feet away that lay peacefully in permanent rest. 

* * *

Spencer muttered a few calming words to himself before he opened the car door, revealing Rosemary staring out the opposite window in the backseat. He climbed in, opening his mouth to speak.   
  
"Rosemary, I-"  
  
"You knew," came the trembling, deadly quiet words. "You knew and you _chose_ not to tell me."  
  
"I didn't want you to get upset," Spencer whispered, eyes wide and guilty. "I knew if I told you-"  
  
"But you didn't!" she accused loudly, whirling to face him. Her cheeks had turned a dark pink flush and her eyes were flashing, but full of tears threatening to spill over.   
  
Reid was good at confrontation when it came to his job- but it was incredibly different confronting a dangerous criminal in comparison to being in that situation with someone you cared about deeply.   
  
"I'm sorry," he frowned, finding it suddenly hard to redeem logic in such an emotional situation. "I didn't think telling you then would do any good... I couldn't bring myself to-"  
  
"To what?" she shot back with quivering lips, her forehead crinkling up as she tried to restrain the tears.   
  
"To hurt you."  
  
She stared at him in silent pain, tears finally dripping out of big brown eyes.   
  
"But it _hurts_ , Spencer," she choked out. "It _hurts_."   
  
She covered her eyes with her shaking hand, beginning to cry without shame. Spencer knew he could not just sit by and let this pain consume her. He had done that too many times already. He slid closer to tentatively wrap an arm around her, allowing her to melt into his embrace. Her body shook with her sobs and she gripped his sweater tightly. But he did not say a word or push her away, finding an odd sense of personal comfort in it. He stared out the window, unable to erase the fact that he had made a mistake from his mind.   
  
But making a mistake did not mean he had to let it ruin her- _or_ him.


	10. Truth

All Rosemary could think about was how wrong it was for her to be in this room, waiting to be questioned about something she didn't do, while her father's body was lying on a cold table, awaiting an autopsy. She was all alone in the room, and she stared blankly at the table she sat behind. There was no way they could think her father was responsible when he'd been dead, unable to set up any laptop or watch them through a camera. But then, she thought bitterly, maybe they thought _she_ was responsible. The laptop being her own didn't help.   
  
She hadn't shed a tear since leaving the crime scene, and now appeared to be in a state of silent suffering. Her hands still burned from scraping them and her wrist throbbed- she couldn't tell how hard she'd landed on it, but enough to make it feel like it was pulsing hard enough to pop off her cast. She didn't care. How could she care about minor injuries when her father was _dead_? And of course, the second she'd gotten back to headquarters she was torn away from Spencer and left in here to wallow in her pain and the chatter of her brain.   
  
She couldn't stay angry at him for having avoided telling her the truth. She was still hurting, but she could not turn an angry eye on him- especially after he had held and comforted her. But that didn't stop her from being enraged at the other agents, especially the ones who had even dared to think her father could have been behind all of this... because of their incorrect assumptions he was _dead_.  
  
"It's me," Morgan announced as he entered the room.   
  
Rosemary said nothing, though her eyes moved slowly off the table to stare at his approaching form. She knew she probably look insane- maybe even like the criminal they wanted. Red-rimmed eyes, smeared mascara, injuries... she didn't care. She just wanted to prove her innocence, her father's innocence, and get out of this room.   
  
"Rosemary, you know why I'm in here," Morgan began, giving her a look as if she knew exactly what he was talking about and was trying to sympathetically garner the answer he wanted from her.   
  
"No, not really," she finally spoke, her gaze latched onto his almost challengingly. Rosemary was one of the least confrontational people she knew- but now was a moment where she needed all of her strength, and she was not going to let these people off easy for what they'd caused.   
  
He arched his eyebrow briefly at her credence, then let out a sigh as if she was making this harder than it had to be.  
"Okay, then let's start with what you _do_ know," he decided, folding his hands on the table. "I bet you can tell me the exact meaning of the way we found your father's body."   
  
Her chin quivered and she glared harder, her teeth clenched together unhealthily tight.   
  
"He was set up in prothesis," she forced out, trying not to begin crying again. "Ancient Greek pre-burial ritual. The body is dressed and displayed for family to mourn over."  
  
"And the conch in his hands?" Morgan pressed, waiting in nonchalant curiosity.   
  
"Representative of Daedalus and the famous puzzle he solved in myth," she finished, her expression more resolute.   
  
"Right," Morgan nodded, turning his head slightly as he watched her. 

* * *

"Everything she said is correct," Spencer said from behind the window, hands in his pockets and his posture slightly slumped. It was safe to say he was not enjoying the situation he had been caught in. "In myth, Daedalus solved the puzzle of King Cocalus, which was stringing a thread through a conch shell. Daedalus tied the string to an ant, pierced a small hole in the tip of the conch, and put honey in the shell to coax the ant all the way through."   
  
Hotch nodded at the explanation, his eyes still trained on the agent and now suspect in the other room.   
  
"And of course, she knew all that too," he remarked as he watched.   
  
"Sir, I really don't think we're following the right trail," Spencer finally spoke up, expressing his true feelings. "Rosemary's grief over her father's death was incredibly real. Her knowledge of Greek mythology and the evidence we have could all just be a ploy our real unsub is using to distract us before the big finale. I'm sure implicating Rosemary was sheer desperation... maybe he's thinking that if he can't have her, then he'll punish her instead."  
  
Hotch clearly disagreed. " _Or_ the killer is trying to get rid of dead weight. She was meant to be distraction at first, but we know too much now, so she's become useless to him. We wondered why he was letting her take the credit, but he's not– he's letting her take the _blame_ while he continues his work."

Spencer didn't even have the chance to try to refute anything before Hotch continued.

"Faking emotion is relatively easy. She hasn't made a sound since we brought her back- she only broke down for you. Don't you think that she might be preying upon your connection to her? Not to mention the fingerprints on the camera, the fact that only _her_ footage on the laptop was cut off to where we couldn't witness anything else- her kidnapper, her attempted escape- we have nothing to show it. I hate to say it, but with every uncovered fact it's looking more sinister than we thought."

He paused, before deciding to add, "And I'm not so sure you _want_ to bring yourself to consider her capable of doing any of this."   
  
Spencer stared in baffled silence at the chief, who looked as if he hadn't quite wanted to say all that he had- but he knew it was necessary.   
  
"Well, when you're done grilling an innocent girl who just lost her father, I'll be outside," Spencer finally responded, giving his boss the most disappointed look he could muster despite how heart-broken he was just below the surface. He turned and left the spectating room, the door shutting behind him. 

* * *

"Now about the laptop..."  
  
"The laptop that was stolen from my home," Rosemary added, a hint of bitterness in her voice.   
  
"Except the person who took it didn't disturb a single thing in your home and left the door locked behind them," Morgan pointed out.   
  
"Well, if they had my father, which they did, getting into my place wouldn't be so hard with the spare keys they'd have lifted off of him," she analyzed, her eyes never leaving his.   
  
"Fair enough," he gave in, raising his hands in slight defeat. " _Except_ that doesn't explain how all of those images and videos got onto the laptop while having no otherfingerprints all over the keyboard. And even if gloves could have been used on the laptop, that still doesn't account for your fingerprints all over that camera."  
  
"That's impossible," Rosemary shook her head, not having heard this piece of information before. "I couldn't have put anything on there, and I didn't touch any camera..."  
  
"And funny enough, the video clip of your captivity was cut much shorter than the others," Morgan added, now drilling everything he had. "We didn't see the kidnapper come into the room, your escape, anything... it's almost as if what was on video could have been staged."

"And I suppose I broke my own wrist and gave myself the other injuries?" Rosemary said then. 

"Of course not– _he_ did all that for you to make this kidnapping story more believable," Morgan suggested listlessly. "We were getting too hot on his trail, so he convinced you to serve as a distraction for a little while. And you've played the part perfectly, haven't you?"  
  
"What would I have to gain from doing all of this?" she asked with a disbelieving and almost hysterical laugh. "Why would I help kill all those people? My own _father_."

"To throw us off your trail," Morgan replied as if it were the most obvious thing ever. "We wouldn't suspect you of being in on this if your father was killed too. Unfortunately for you, we aren't that easily swayed."

"How dare you–"  
  
"You know, I think you became obsessed with myth, and you wanted to prove your knowledge and ability," he continued. "You have an IQ over 120, Rosemary, people with a head like that don't just let it all go to waste! Other people ridiculed you growing up for that, and you had to do something to boost your ego and make you feel superior."  
  
"You're wrong," she shook her head, growing simultaneously angrier and frightened by the escalating situation.  
  
"Why keep denying it? We already have evidence against you, and we're only gonna find more! Your partner's letting you take the blame, that's why he handed the evidence right over to us. He doesn't need you to complete his work, you're useless to him now––"  
  
"Stop!" she shouted, her fingers digging into the table. "Just- stop, okay?"  
  
"Tell me the truth, Rosemary, and this is all over," Morgan finished quietly, the climax coming to a startling end.   
  
"The _truth_?" she asked, now feeble under duress. "I've been telling you the truth since the beginning, Agent Morgan. I don't know _why_ I was taken, but I _was_. If this unsub you keep talking about is so clever, he knows how to deflect the attention away from himself so while we're sitting in this room arguing about my innocence, five more people are being _murdered_."   
  
The agent stared back at her with intrigued eyes, though he couldn't seem to come up with an adequate reply. Instead, he rose from his seat, exiting the room and leaving her solo again. She looked at the glass she knew had people watching her from behind- possibly even Spencer. If he was watching, she felt even more ashamed of herself.   
  
She didnt usually let herself act the way she had. But she'd gone very quickly from bitter to outraged and scared. It was giving her emotional whiplash, and the constant reminder of a dead body in the building that had once been someone who meant the world to her only made tears leak out of her eyes again. She put her face in her hands, not wanting anyone to witness this moment of ultimate vulnerability- they owed her _some_ privacy, at least in this.  
  
Five minutes later, the door opened again and Agent Morgan held it open with his body.  
  
"You can come out now," he told her.  
  
Rosemary wiped under her eyes and rose from the chair, trying to stand up tall in order not to seem weak. She brushed past him lightly as she left the room and allowed herself to be guided back to a waiting room.   
  
"We need you to stay in here for now," Derek requested, glancing back out into the main bullpen. Spencer looked up from his lap and glanced over, seeing Rosemary had finally been let out of questioning.   
  
"Keep an eye on her for a bit," Morgan told Spencer as he passed by, nodding with a slight look of sympathy in his eyes.   
  
Spencer was somewhat glad for the opportunity to be alone with Rosemary again, wishing he could convey to her just how much he believed in her and was trying to fight for her innocence. His mind lit up as he decided one slightly cheesy way to show her he was there for her despite the mess, and he turned around to rummage in his bag and desk, looking for a book he could bring to her. None of them felt good enough, he thought in frustration as he searched around. But hazel eyes brightened as they landed on the perfect novel, and he grabbed it and turned around to head to the waiting room.   
  
But she was gone.   
  
Spencer eyebrows twitched into a frown and he looked around, wondering where she'd gone to. The bathroom maybe? He could not check, though. The agent jogged over to the conference room to interrupt the others, blurting out, "Rosemary's not in the room. I thought maybe she went to the restroom but..."   
  
JJ caught on and nodded, glancing at the group and saying, "I'll go check the bathroom for her."  
  
She followed Spencer out to follow the path to the restrooms, entering the women's restroom.   
  
"Rosemary? Are you in here?"  
  
She pushed each door lightly until she hit the end of the row of toilets, all revealing themselves to be empty. JJ exited and Spencer waited expectantly for an answer.   
  
"She's not there," the blonde sighed, and Spencer suddenly looked as if an unsavory idea had crept into his brain.   
  
"She must have run," he murmured, staring into blank space, fingers gripping the book in his hands painfully tight. "She probably got freaked out, she was so upset- JJ, what else did he say to her?"  
  
The blonde's mouth opened slightly and she shook her head, concern in the blue orbs. "We need to catch her before she gets far.. she either ran because she was upset or... because she's guilty."  
  
The evidence was piling on top of Spencer and the more it settled, the more he could feel the doubt in his heart. Maybe he had really been played, for all his intelligence, and now Rosemary was saving herself from punishment. He didn't want to accept it, but the thoughts infiltrated his head regardless. He numbly followed JJ, blinking back a few tears as he tried to focus on them catching up to Rosemary before she could get far.   
  
As they entered the bullpen again, the other agents had emerged, and upon seeing JJ's face, Hotch quickly ordered them to get a move on.   
  
"Morgan, take them down the East staircase, Blake and I have the West," Hotch said firmly, hurrying already towards the elevators which split the corridor and lead to both staircases.   
  
The group split and went rushing towards the stairs, running out of time with every passing second.


	11. Science and Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obvs the name of this story was based off Science/Visions by Chvrches so this is kinda the titular chapter lmao. Hope you enjoy! ALSO THREE UPDATES IN ONE DAY , plz love me

Perhaps running from a federal building was not the smartest move Rosemary could have made for all her intelligence. Racing down the stairs, heart threatening to jump out of her chest as she moved, she discovered that going out of the emergency exit would set off alarms in the building that shrieked piercingly, almost sending her toppling down the steps in surprise.  
  
_But what else was she supposed to do?_  
  
Her life was tumbling down around her and she had nothing left to lose.   
  
_Or did she?_  
  
The sudden realization that the assumption was a fallacy, and in fact, she had the most important thing in the world to lose- _Spencer's trust_ \- hit her as she finally darted out of the building, trying to navigate her way back across the sprawling campus in the evening's moonlight. A sob caught in her chest but she forced herself to keep going, walking at a quick pace to avoid suspicion from any cameras that might have their digital eye trained on her. But did it really matter? She knew the team would be rushing after her now that they knew she was gone and those alarms had been set off.

She wasn't even sure why she'd decided to run. She was scared mainly– and maybe she was desperate to find a way to prove her innocence. But how was she going to do that? They seemed deadset on implicating her as the suspect. Everything Agent Morgan had said had been so hurtful– about her low self-esteem, people making fun of her growing up. Nothing had hurt more than accusing her father of abusing her and making her resent him though.  
  
She picked up her speed, freezing in the night air, and watched her breath dissipate in the darkness as she moved. She wished she could go back and apologize and make it all okay. But they would never believe her- she wasn't even sure if Spencer would believe her after this stunt. Rosemary couldn't possibly blame him if he never forgave or trusted her again.  
Then she would really have nothing left to lose... and maybe it would all be easier that way.

* * *

Spencer rushed past his team members as they made their way down the stairs, ignoring the shrill cry of the alarms that sounded around them. He was determined- if he knew anything at all as he was chasing Rosemary, it was that he wanted to get to the bottom of this once and for all. He would either find out that he had been played by a clever criminal and his heart would break for the second time, _or_ that he had not done enough to assure a scared girl that he believed her every word- and protect her from the evil that had already tainted her kindness too many times.  
  
"She won't be far, come on!" he called back to JJ and Morgan, who were not only steps behind.   
  
"Spence, be careful!" JJ warned as the young agent moved at an alarming speed down the stairs.  
   
He blocked out the warning, his head swarming with all of the terrible scenarios that he might encounter when they made it out of the building.  He didn't have any longer to think, however, as he landed at the bottom and shoved open the emergency door, shooting out into the cold night.

* * *

Rosemary glanced back as she made it towards the main road that surrounded the government buildings, scared that someone might be gaining on her. She halted to a stop right by the side of the road, turning to peer through the dim lights on the grounds.   
  
"Rosemary, stay there!"  
  
Spencer had spotted her from further away and quickly burst into a sprint. The brunette panicked.

"I can't," she breathed out with heaving chest, backing up. As she whirled around to face the road again, she could see approaching headlights and made a split second decision. She waved for the car to stop, the lights too bright for her to see who was inside. The car came to a slow halt and Rosemary ran across the road, trying her hardest to ignore Spencer's desperate shouts and focus on anything else.   
  
_Just **breathe**. _  
  
The brunette threw open the passenger door and got in, turning to face the driver as she began to shut the door and say in a hurried mess, " _Please_ , I just need to get away-"  
  
A sudden flash of gold made her lose all sense of speech. It was happening all over again, that life-changing nightmare- her muscles locked up in fear and she was unable to make a sound as her kidnapper stared at her with smug eyes behind the mask. The silent young woman reached at the door to push it back open, trying to get her limbs working again- he suddenly reached across her body, crushing her, to reach for the door. She finally emitted a cracked scream as he slammed the door shut completely.   
  
The will to fight was slowly creeping back into her blood and she squirmed under his torso, shoving and scratching at him. She hated him more than she could put into words- so she decided to put it into her muscles and _fight back_. But he took the brunt of her attacks as his hand grappled for something on the dashboard. A flash of silver alerted her body that it was going to be taken advantage of for a second time-  
  
_"No!"_

* * *

Spencer was not athletic whatsoever, but he knew he was running faster than he ever had in his life to catch up to Rosemary. Across the grass he could see her frantically stopping a car and she hastily threw herself into the passenger seat.   
  
Spencer began to slow near the edge of the road, feeling close to defeat- but a scream that just barely reached his ears made his blood turn cold.  
  
"Rosemary!" Spencer shouted frantically towards the car. He glanced right as another car zoomed down the road, going too fast for him to make a move without potentially getting hit.   
  
"Reid, what's going on?" came Morgan's yell from only feet away, the rest of the team right on his heels.  
  
Spencer kept his eyes on the car across the road as the other speeding vehicle finally passed in front of him. He immediately made a run for it across the road...

* * *

Rosemary could feel the heavy loss in her chest as the needle was roughly inserted into her neck, quickly rendering her body useless to the overwhelming tiredness. Her eyelids were like weights she could not lift and her muscles felt weak and slow.   
  
"Sp-Spence..."  
  
She knocked a limp hand against the window before she fell into complete unconsciousness. 

* * *

The car was speeding away, he couldn't stop it, he couldn't-  
  
"Spencer, stop!" JJ pleaded in a cry from across the road as the agent ran after the car. But it picked up speed and swiftly disappeared around the curve.   
  
Spencer staggered to a halt, staring down the road and breathing so hard his mouth had gone dry. He heard the footsteps come up behind him, and J.J. put a hand on his arm, tugging him out of the road with her.   
  
"It was him," Spencer spat breathily, pulling out of the blonde's grip as soon as they were out of the road. "That son of a bitch!"  
  
Spencer Reid rarely, if ever, swore. But he was in a rage, one that he was eager to put into good use to find the sick man who had taken away the one other person after Maeve that made him feel good- made him feel _whole_.   
  
"The man in the mask?" Hotch inquired hastily, brows furrowed and eyes wide. "Did they plan this?..."  
  
"No, I heard her scream!" Spencer insisted, pacing away from them and putting his hands on his head as he tried to calm his heart and regain proper breathing. "She screamed, I heard it, he must have done something to her–"  
  
"Jesus..." Morgan trailed off.   
  
"We need to go, _now_ ," Hotch suddenly ordered, beginning to go back the way they had come. "We're not going to let him get away this time."  
  
Spencer faced the group again, his eyebrows twitching in surprise at Hotch finally believing him and preparing to track down the real criminal.   
  
"Did you get a license plate?" Blake interjected, stashing her gun away as they ran back towards the parking lot.   
  
"YYA-2081," Spencer recited, the image of the plate burned into his memory.   
  
"We'll have to get Garcia to hook up to traffic cameras in the area and we'll send out an alert to local authorities," Hotch finished before they made it to the SUVs, everyone hopping in. The engines revved up before the cars shot out of the parking lot, the agents of the BAU now only racing against time to close this case and save a life. Spencer could feel the anxiety crushing him as he sat in the back of the vehicle, watching everything zoom by out of the windows.  
  
_If he was too late..._  
  
No- he couldn't bring himself to think about it that outcome.


	12. discord

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoops after fifty years an update. honestly lowkey feel like this story sucks at this point but i might as well finish uploading the chapters since i started!

Rosemary knew this feeling all too well. She was stirring and it was from a sleep one did not naturally fall into. This time, however, she was almost too scared to open her eyes. _Where would she be this time?_  
  
"She's waking up, thank God!" someone whispered with a tone of relief, and Rosemary could feel her eyebrows twitch into a frown. 

"Yeah, and how exactly does that help us?" a second voice hissed in return. 

Rosemary willed herself to raise her eyelids. The lights were dim, but still strong enough to her to blink quickly in pain to clear her vision. She felt something brittle under her hands—she brought her hands up to her line of vision to look. _Straw?_

"What's your name, honey?" the first voice asked, and Rosemary looked over in slight panic, her heart hammering and straw falling from her palm.

"We're not going to hurt you. He has us here too." 

Rosemary could now make out the person speaking to her- she was definitely older than Rosemary, perhaps her mid to late thirties, with a mature, distinctly kindly appearance. Her eyes were big and reassuring, and as she offered a smile, the outer corners of her eyes crinkled up. But what made Rosemary grow frightened all over again was the outfit this woman wore- she was dressed in a white chiton, the clothing of ancient Greek women. 

Rosemary looked down at her own body, suddenly aware of the floaty material brushing against her skin. She too was dressed in a chiton, though of a bronze hue. 

"Who put this on me?" she demanded, hands clenched in anger and fright around bunches of the material. 

"He dropped you off in here already wearing it," said the owner of the second voice, now coming into Rosemary's eyeline. This woman had to be closer to Rosemary's age, though she carried features more elegant and beautiful, even a little haughty in comparison to the other woman. Another chiton, of red fabric, however, which contrasted beautifully against her long golden hair. 

Rosemary could feel the bile rise in her chest at the thought of her kidnapper undressing her and _touching_ her to put her in this gown...

"We have to get out of here," Rosemary pushed out, trying to get up from the floor where she sat. As she stood up, wobbly, she could tell they were in a new location, as the team had predicted with the unsub's pattern. This time they looked to be in some kind of barn, with straw scattered on the floor and abandoned farm tools hanging on a wall. 

"You don't think we've tried?" the blonde shot back, crossing her arms. "We've been here for days. Then you show up out of nowhere..."

While she held a strong facade, Rosemary could see the fear in the young woman's eyes. The brunette glanced back at their other companion, who appeared to be grimacing at their predicament. 

"Is there anyone else in this barn?"

The two nodded, pointing towards a stall in the corner. 

"Erin," the blonde said. "She's been in there since she he dropped her off—she only spoke enough to give us her name." 

Rosemary's mind was trying to click fifty different puzzle pieces together all at once, which was not working out so well. She needed a place to start from—she figured getting to know her fellow victims might help.

"I'm Rosemary," she told them, wincing as she gripped the cast around her wrist. He had been rough with her in the car—she might have misplaced it in the struggle, and she needed a doctor to fix that sooner rather than later.

"June," the other brunette responded. 

"Vera," the blonde muttered.

Two puzzle pieces snapped together—every step brought her closer to solving this.� Rosemary kept going.

"Listen.. as we speak, the BAU of the FBI are tracking me down," she told them softly, suddenly remembering to be aware of cameras that might be aimed right at them. Sure enough, as her eyes darted over their heads, she spotted the little camera bolted to a beam in the ceiling. 

"Really?" June asked in sheer joy, her eyes lighting up. "Oh my god, I thought no one would be able to find us here—"

"Why in the hell is the FBI chasing after _you_?" Vera interrupted, and Rosemary quickly shushed her.

"I was already kidnapped once by this creep," she explained in hushed tones, ignoring their expressions of shock. "I got away and I was an important part of the FBI investigation to stop him, considering I'm the only one who survived. My dad became a suspect—and then he turned up dead. I became their next suspect and..." 

She swallowed hard, able to remember the look on Spencer's face as he chased her down what could have been hours ago. Though she wished he would throw open that door any second to save them, she was scared to confront him after the mess that had put her back in the hands of a false god. 

"I ran. I was scared. I tried to hitchhike away and he must have been waiting for me because I got into the car and then he injected me again. In case you haven't caught on by now, his aim is to recreate scenes of Greek mythology. We're about to be a part of another scene, but what scene that is... I don't know."

* * *

"You can do this babygirl, he can't have gotten far out of the sight of those cameras," Morgan remarked on speakerphone as the SUV zoomed down the road, following the blonde's instructions over the phone. 

"I don't understand how he could have just disappeared from those cameras like that!" she replied in a frenzied tone. "I had him and then a second later the car was gone, I don't know—"

"Garcia, we can't lose his trail now or we'll be set back another few days, which is time we don't have," Hotch spoke out loud, keeping his eyes on the road though his jaw was clenched. "Could there have been a back road we missed? We're veering into scenic territory, there could be any place for him to get off the main road without us noticing."

"Right! I don't know why I didn't think of that, I'll look into that right... now..." 

The ferocious clicking of computer keys filled the silence before a triumphant sound came over the speaker. 

"He veered off the main road a little bit back, you need to turn around."

The SUV suddenly swerved and made a sharp U-turn to go back the way it had come. 

Meanwhile, in Blake and J.J.'s vehicle, Spencer was locked into his own mind as they trailed the other SUV, his fingers intertwining and then unwinding as he fell into habit in the backseat. 

"She's going to be okay, Spence," J.J. assured him from the passenger seat, glancing back at him. "She's gotten away once before, and she's been with us long enough to know what this unsub is like—she just might be able to talk her way out of anything or use the information against him."

It was true, Rosemary was clever enough to at least put off a bad situation long enough for the team to arrive—but Maeve had been able to do the same thing, and even showing up hadn't been enough. He had watched her _die_ right in front of him. There was no guarantee this would not happen all over again. 

Thus, the agent said nothing as J.J. offered consolation, only nodding at her and offering a slight, tight-lipped smile. 

* * *

"What?" Vera said, her eyes flashing. "Greek mythology? What is this asshole's deal? Why _us_?" 

Rosemary could not answer, for she was trying to answer that very question herself. She forced herself to delve deeper into her knowledge of mythology, staring into space as she thought. There were four girls in the room, and as far as she knew, this was the total of people the golden masked fiend had taken captive. But there could be more in another place for all she knew— 

"My middle name is Minerva," she said aloud, staring in hyperfocus at the rusty tools on the wall. 

"What does that mean?" June questioned, both of Rosemary's counterparts quizzical of her sudden shift in attitude. 

"Bronze... white.. red," she continued to herself, trying to find a connection as her brows furrowed. "Is Erin wearing a chiton too?" 

She faced the women, who looked a little confused by the question. 

"A wha—"

"The dress," she prodded further, a little impatient but trying to remain under check for their sakes.  
  
"Yeah," Vera confirmed, still unsure of Rosemary's intentions but clearly not about to question her last hope of escape. 

"Colour?" Rosemary added. 

"Black," June offered. 

Rosemary was growing frustrated by her inability to put two and two together—for all she knew, he could be coming to finish this now that he knew Rosemary was awake. 

"June, Vera, Erin, Rosemary," she repeated to herself, trying to pretend the pain in her wrist was nonexistent. "Black, bronze, red, white..." 

A famous scene—white symbolized purity, while red sat on the opposite end of the spectrum in meaning. Bronze was not quite royal—it held an element of brightness while tying into the strength of metal. Black could either mean darkness in or trying to cloak oneself in the night. But what use was the meaning of colours? Maybe going back to the names...

"My middle name is Minerva," she recalled in a hushed whisper to herself. "Athena, in Greek."

Her face suddenly paled and she continued, in a shaky whisper, "June is Juno. Vera is Venus. Erin is Eris."

She now understood the plan. This was why he could not let Rosemary go after the first time. He needed her for the grand finale, because she had been his most important target from the beginning—and now he had her again, right where he wanted her. He was too self-obsessed to have ever strayed from his intentions, which was why she was back in his clutches. 

"He's going to recreate the Judgement of Paris," she finally explained to the two other women, her limbs quaky as her brown eyes flicked in between them and the door with each passing second. 

"How do you know that?" Vera inquired, shooting a glance at June. 

"All of us bear names resembling the three goddesses who were thrown into discord in the tale," Rosemary detailed hastily. "My middle name is the Roman counterpart to Athena, who is almost always depicted with a shield and armor—the bronze. Red for Venus, or Aphrodite—June is dressed in pure white and meant to depict the motherly, femininity of Juno, or Hera. And Erin is Eris, goddess of discord who causes the disagreement between the three goddesses with her golden apple, cloaked under the colour of night... who happens to be her mother."

While there was no Paris to be the mediator in the barn, Rosemary could only guess their captor had decided to separate the men and women, perhaps to lessen their chances of fighting back and escaping. 

Rosemary knew they only had so much time now—he had to be watching. 

"What do we do?" June begged, and both women gathered closer to Rosemary, desperate to survive.

"He's developed a narcissistic persona to cover up his own insecurity and low self-esteem," she told them, finding herself to be repeating the very words the agents had used. "Everything he's done has been to prove himself for some reason. He needs to show off. If we disrupt his routine and turn the tables on his perfect fantasy, he just may unravel."

"What if he tries to kill us?" Vera questioned, dubious. 

"He won't touch you," Rosemary promised, though she could not possibly know just how he might react. Well, if he _did_ try anything—she would not let any of them get hurt. She had already been lucky once—if this was the universe's way of saying she had been put in this position again to help others, then that was what she would do. That was something Spencer would do, she thought with a pang in the chest.

"I'm going to get Erin," the brunette told them, though before she rushed over to the stall to look inside, she grabbed a rusty hammer off the wall.  

The raven-haired young woman lifted her chin from her knees as Rosemary stopped in the stall doorway and shot a slight glare in the brunette's direction. 

"What do you want?" she demanded lowly.

"For you to work with me so we can all escape," Rosemary stated, utilizing all the mental and emotional strength she could muster. 

* * *

The SUVs came to a halt as the agents beheld what appeared to be a rundown, abandoned farmhouse and an equally rugged barn further off into the fields. 

"J.J., take the barn," Hotch ordered as the team got out of the vehicles, gathering for instructions. "Morgan and I have the house. Stay in contact—we don't know what to expect just yet."

The team split up to stick to the plan, the three agents making their way carefully towards the barn in the moonlight, J.J.'s flashlight the one thing keeping their path visible. 

"Hey, whatever we see when we get in there, whatever happens—you cannot lose your cool," Blake murmured as she crept beside Spencer, glancing at him with soft brown hues. 

The agent gazed at her in silence, not sure he could promise anything. But, then again, he could not put either of their lives at risk due to his own selfishness. The agent nodded in response before returning his eyes to J.J.'s figure leading them forward, the hopeful side of his mind making promises of safety and happy endings that the logical side could not quite come to terms with just yet. 

* * *

"We're going to play out this fantasy of his," Rosemary explained to the three women, one of whom had only recently and begrudgingly agreed to take part in this plan. "But he's going to get more than he bargained for. The portraits he creates give him power over his victims—he's silencing them by putting them in a permanent position in the fantasy of his choosing. He expects compliance and his fear tactics to work. When he shows up, there's a ninety-five percent chance he has the golden apple with him, to give to Erin—the second we see it—"

A loud, heavy sound alerted the four women and they all jolted, as if they ought to go somewhere else, though there was nowhere else to go _to_. 

Rosemary swallowed and waited expectantly, the tiny voice inside of her urging her not to back down. Not when these women were trusting her, were placing all of their faith in the one survivor... 

There was a rusty creaking and something heavy settled into place—the door latch, she expected. The barn doors then opened, and there he was, mask reflecting the pale hue of the moon. He stood for a moment, as if to bask in the fear he was able to rouse in them, before shutting the doors behind him. Rosemary glanced down at his hands—there was a cloth bag on his arm. The apple had to be in there. She raised her inquisitive gaze back to the mask that now faced them again, the frightening bull's features unmoving. 

Their captor pointed a finger at Erin, whose face remained a facade though Rosemary could see her muscles tense. He curled his finger to gesture for her to come forward. She did as she was told, and he reached into his bag, gloved hand disappearing momentarily. The women were silent, waiting for the right moment to act. Rosemary's grip on the tool behind her back tightened. 

His hand resurfaced and there it was, shining bright in all of it's golden glory—the apple. 

"That apple is mine!" Rosemary accused, her voice a little shaky, though she stepped forward and held her ground. 

"No, it's mine!" Vera snarled, playing into the role with the perfect amount of envious malice. 

"Ladies, it's clear the apple is meant for me," June disagreed in a harsh voice, all three gathering closer to the apple as Erin held it in shaky hands. 

Their captor did not move, though he lowered the arm the bag was hanging onto. 

"I'm the smartest out of all of you, of course it's mine!" Rosemary shouted, pouring her anxieties into this angry scene. 

"Absolutely not, it belongs to me—"

_"How dare either of you presume it's yours?—"_

The shouting match was a glorious frenzy and all the women made sure their masked enemy received the brunt of their shrillness. His mask was moving as he looked back and forth between them, and Rosemary felt the urge heighten—it was time for her to make the first move. 

As she pulled the hammer out from behind her back, a banging on the door interrupted them... and that was when the real chaos commenced.


	13. prepared to do anything

Rosemary's breath was knocked out of her at the sight of Spencer standing in the large barn doorway, the doors having been flung open only a second earlier. Her moment of weakness, however, allowed her opponent to tear the hammer from her grip and whirl around her, pulling her close in a rough manner. 

Three guns were aimed right at them, steady agents holding a line of fire as Rosemary released shallow breaths, held tightly over the chest by a strong arm. 

A deadly silence filled the barn, the moon's light casting frighteningly tall shadows as it poured in from behind the agents. Rosemary locked gazes with Spencer, whose arm was wavering just slightly as he watched her, something in his face she couldn't yet decode. She couldn't understand just what this very situation meant to him. 

"Drop the hammer," Spencer finally spoke, intense eyes remaining on the emotionless mask. "If you bash her head in, your scene is ruined. You know you will never find another that can replace her—that's why you came after her a second time."

* * *

Hotch and Morgan made sure to scan the perimeter before breaking into the seemingly empty farmhouse, guns at the ready and leading them in defense as they made their way into each dark room of the house, looking for a sign of life—or just the opposite. 

"Nothing," Morgan shook his head as they met in the large dining room, where only basic, decaying wooden furniture remained. 

"Something feels off about this," Hotch said as he scanned the room, his gut unable to find ease. 

"Maybe we need to be looking for a hidden room—a cellar or something," Morgan suggested. 

"Let's check under all the rugs, there are a few scattered around." 

The two agents split, Morgan going upstairs as Hotch plucked up the threadbare carpet in a parlor room. His intuition had been correct—a mismatching chunk of floorboard with a heavy duty lock keeping it shut. 

"Found something in the parlor, get back down here," he spoke into his small microphone under his sleeve. He soon heard Morgan's heavy steps descending from the stairs in the other part of the house and the agent joined him in the parlor.

"Good call," Morgan complimented as they stared at the trapdoor. 

"I'm going to have to shoot the lock, so stand back," Hothh informed his companion. Morgan complied, moving away as Hotch aimed his gun, his features wincing slightly as the bullet shot out and the sound echoed loudly in the room. The lock shattered and pieces flew in a scatter on the floor. 

Morgan reapproached as Hotch very carefully and deliberately opened the door and, before looking down, he called down, "Is there anyone down there?"

"Hey! Hey, is that the police? Jesus Christ, thank you! Come get me out of here!" 

It was a male voice. Hotch and Morgan shared dubious looks, before deciding to head down, still on their guard. 

* * *

Rosemary's chest felt as if it was caving in and she desperately wished the agents could make it end once and for all. But her captor still had an upper hand—she could feel the metal of the hammer grazing the hairs on her head. 

"She's the one you've really wanted through all of this—none of the other scenes could even come close to what you could do with her," Spencer continued, stepping forward and lowering his gun as if to show he was incapable of causing harm. J.J. and Blake, however, kept a tight reign on their positioned guns.

"You can't kill her now."

Rosemary forced her eyes to look as far up as they could see, and the hammer had disappeared from her line of vision. She heard a soft thud, and she felt a shudder roll through her body. 

"Good—this isn't the way you want to do it. She has to stay beautiful for your creation to look its best, right?" 

"Spencer, don't," Rosemary choked out, suddenly frightened for his life over hers. He was getting too close, and she did not trust this man was going to surrender so easily. 

As Spencer's eyes landed on hers in a moment of distraction, her assailant reached into the bag that was now resting against the front of her body, whipping out something that blurred past her vision as he now held it out of her line of sight. 

"Don't!" J.J. ordered in a strong, forceful voice, both women shifting their stances in a way that made Rosemary tense up again. 

As she looked back at Spencer, he seemed frozen in a state of shock, though he quickly wiped the look off his face. 

"You can't have more than enough to knock her out again in there," he stated flatly, and Rosemary felt a sharp pin poke into the sensitive skin of her neck.

"No," she choked out, not wanting that needle in her neck again. 

And then, to everyone's surprise—he finally spoke. After so many encounters of only silence, Rosemary's walking nightmare was now speaking. 

"It's enough to kill her in minutes," he disagreed, his voice monotonous yet chillingly cruel. 

"Put it down," Spencer demanded, his voice somewhat resilient though Rosemary could detect shakiness. She was too terrified to even shake, her limbs contracted painfully tight. 

"We will be forced to shoot if you don't surrender now," Blake informed the masked man, her tone suggesting this was not the route he would want to go down. 

"Spencer."

It bubbled past Rosemary's lips involuntarily. Her body was warning her, adrenaline was pumping through her at a rate she did not trust to be a good sign...

"I'm sorry." 

She felt the arm slide down off her chest very slowly, and surprise hit her with full force—was he really giving in? 

"Good, now drop the syringe and come towards me—"

_"HEY!"_

Gunshots rang out and echoed with the high ceiling, screams mixing in.

* * *

Hotch and Morgan lowered their guns as they hurried forward to check on the rugged male who had been chained to a wooden shelf that seemed to be a makeshift bed attached to the wall. 

"Get these off me, please," he begged. 

"We'll get you out real soon," Morgan promised, looking around for keys or something to pop those chains off. The room was pretty barren and only held junk material that wouldn't help get the chains off. 

"He doesn't leave them here," the young man informed them in a quaking voice. 

"Where did he go?" Hotch cut to the chase, frowning as he watched the male intently.

"I think he went to the barn—that's where the girls are," the victim swallowed, his dark-circle framed eyes lowering. 

"Morgan, you stay here and call Garcia to send a medic and backup. They could be in more trouble than we expected." 

Morgan nodded, already speaking into his microphone to get Penelope's aid. 

* * *

As Hotch ran for the barn, he heard a series of gunshots that nearly stopped him in his tracks. Instead, he sped up, breathless as he headed straight for the open barn doors. 

The agent came to careful stop and looked in at the disaster that lay before him. 

Blake was crouched over a body, and Hotch stiffened as she pulled back to reveal the identity of the victim. 

It was their unsub. 

He tore his gaze away to look at J.J., who was kneeling beside a distraught Reid. The male agent was clutching Rosemary's body in his arms, her torso in his lap. Hotch approached warily, not sure what to expect.

"She's not...?"

"She only has minutes before she is," Spencer spoke in a cracked voice, looking up at the agent with frightened, teary eyes. "It's going to shut down all of her organs soon, we need to get her the antidote, I—"

"Where would it be?" Hotch cut in, knowing Spencer was seconds away from losing all stability. 

"I don't know," Spencer shook his head, brushing hair out of Rosemary's face with trembling fingers. "It has to be here somewhere, he would have kept it near him—there's no way he wouldn't have kept an antidote on him—"

"We'll find it, Spence," J.J. promised, shooting up from the floor to approach Hotch. They exchanged unsure gazes, both knowing they didn't have time to lose looking for this antidote. But they couldn't actually guarantee that their unsub had even bothered to keep one with him—he might not have had any intention of rousing anyone from near-death. 

"Where would this guy put an antidote?" J.J. asked Hotch, approaching the unmoving body that Blake was now standing over. 

"Would he be smug enough to leave it in plain sight?" Hotch wondered in a low voice, watching J.J.

"Blake, could you keep an eye on the girls?" J.J. asked quietly, blue hues moving over the huddled group of women who seemed distraught. Even Erin had a ghastly look to her sharp features, knowing that had it not been for Rosemary, she might have been killed only minutes earlier. 

"Got it," Blake nodded, approaching the trio to console them until backup could arrive. 

"Spencer, we know you're struggling right now—but we need your mind to help us try and figure out where the antidote could be," Hotch requested gently, kneeling beside the agent. He glanced at Rosemary; her face had gone pale under the stream of light from the sky and her breathing was so slow, it was almost undetectable. 

Spencer shook his head but did not deny the request, his eyes on Rosemary as he tried to come up with some answers. Now was not the time for his brain to fail him. This would not end like Maeve—not if he could help it. 

The agent tore his eyes away from his fast-fading beloved to scan the barn, taking in even the most minute of details to solve this dilemma. 

"You," he said abruptly, causing Blake and the group of women to cease their quiet conversation and face him. "The golden apple. Bring it here, quickly please." 

Hotch and J.J. both watched in curiosity as Erin came forward with the golden apple in hand, her expression solemn. Spencer held his hand out for it, and she placed it in his palm gently. He moved it around in his hands. Immediately a frown pulled Spencer's eyebrows together and he glanced back at the two agents with lips parted in shock.

"This isn't a real apple—it's hollow," he explained, his enthusiasm quickly growing. "Grab me one of those tools off the wall, hurry!"

J.J. hastily jogged to the wall and plucked a rusty hacksaw off of the nail it hung on. She brought it back over to Spencer, who shifted to set the apple on the ground and furiously, though making sure not to cut too deep, sliced the apple. In a second it cracked and he was able to force the halves apart, his hands trembling in overwhelming alleviation at his discovery. 

A small though wide vial of infused liquids had been contained within—had the unsub succeeded in his final plan, it would have certainly been a taunt to put the cure to the cause of these girls' deaths in the center object of the whole scene. 

Spencer lunged across Rosemary's body to grab the fallen syringe, his hands working nimbly to pop open the vial and collect some of the liquid into the syringe.

"You're sure this is the antidote?" Hotch asked warily, eyeing the syringe with some uncertainty. 

"It has to be," Spencer said, his back facing the agents as he held the syringe in contemplation, appearing a tad hesitant. 

"Maybe we should wait for a medic..." J.J. suggested softly, her eyes on the fine point of the needle.

"If we wait for them, she'll be dead!" Spencer replied with a harshness that was an attempt to mask his fears and also conveyed his instability. "I _have_ to do this." 

Everyone in the barn watched with bated breath as Spencer pulled down the fabric of the chiton to reveal the top of her bosom, aiming the needle right above the skin. He was unsure, but only for a moment.

His hand came down and the needle broke through the skin smoothly, right to her heart. Spencer shakily pushed down to inject all of the liquid he had collected into her body. When the syringe was fully drained, he removed the needle and tossed the tool to the side, using his now free hand to better hold her head up and wait for a sign that the antidote was coursing through her blood and reversing its counterpart's effects. 

As the seconds ticked by and no signs showed Rosemary's health was no longer deteriorating, the unease in the air grew thick. 

"Spencer..." J.J. sighed, shaking her head despondently.

"It's going to work," he insisted in a frail tone, unflinching in his position. 

The sounds of sirens reached their ears and Hotch realized their backup had finally arrived. 

"Blake, let's get the girls to the medics immediately," he requested, to which Blake guided the girls towards the entrance to leave the barn. 

"Is she dead?" June asked in the most desolate tone, tears leaking out of her kindly eyes. 

Hotch could not say anything, and Spencer remained quiet, so he simply offered her a grave look. She began to sob as Blake continued leading them out, Vera shooting a look over her shoulder as they exited. 

Spencer had already begun to cry in silence over Rosemary's form, his eyelids squeezed shut as he couldn't bear to look at her nearly lifeless features any longer. Tears rolled down his cheeks and his torso shook with the sobs he held within. The agents came closer and J.J. kneeled beside him, putting her arm around her despairing friend. If there was anything any of them could have done to stop this, they would have done it. To see Spencer suffer like this again was torture.

Then, taking them all by surprise, several shallow breaths forced close together in timing reached their ears. Spencer's eyes opened a fraction as if he wasn't sure he had heard right, and all three of the agents trained their gazes on Rosemary's face. Her features were contorting in what appeared to be pain, though her eyes were still shut tight. Her hand suddenly flew to her chest, grasping at the fabric of the dress as if it was too tight on her chest. 

"Ow," she moaned in a whine, keeping her eyes closed. "It's... heavy... squeezing me..."

Spencer quickly realized she must be feeling the full effects of the medicine pumping through her heart and out into her bloodstream, which could cause an intense pain, as if someone was squeezing her chest and arteries in a relentless hold. 

"Rosemary, it's Spencer," he choked out, swallowing his pain and tears to keep her with him. "Can you open your eyes for me? I'm right here, look."

"What's—happening to me? Why does my body feel so... strange?" 

Her sentences were a bit broken up as she pushed back against the pain and waves of unusual feelings enveloping her body. 

"You almost died, Rosemary," Spencer explained, choking up again as he uttered the words aloud. "But you're going to be okay."

"Did you.. save me?" she forced out in a quiet, pained voice, her brows still furrowed over the shut eyes. 

"Yeah—yeah, I did."

Hotch and J.J. exchanged looks, both of them unable to stop the relieved smiles that spread across their lips. Rosemary's hand moved from her chiton to feel for him, and Spencer quickly found her hand, holding it tightly in his own. 

"That's you," she murmured in slight surprise. 

"It's me."

Her eyelids finally fluttered up to reveal zoned out deep brown hues, and the brunette took a moment to focus on the face staring down at her (even still, her lids kept falling as she tried to avoid passing back out). Her lips parted as her surprise was replaced by joyful relief, and she lifted her arm weakly, now fully aware of the hand intertwined with her own. 

"You're holding my hand," she noted, a lazy smile on her face. 

"And I'm never letting go so you can't run off on me like that again," Spencer chuckled in relief, though it was shaky.

"You were crying?" she then inquired, her smile fading as she saw the tear stains on his cheeks. 

"I thought I was going to watch you die," he murmured painfully, his eyebrows raising expressively as he spoke. 

"No. I wouldn't do that to you."

His lips curved into a goofy grin and he lowered his gaze, unable to hide his happiness. 

"No. You wouldn't." 

Rosemary smiled again before her eyes fluttered shut, and Spencer carefully pulled her into his embrace, his arm tight around her as their hands remained glued together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> nope, this isn't the end. there's some more to reveal!


End file.
